THE THEORIES OF AND THEIR INFLUENCE

ON HIS WEST-COAST CANADIAN STUDENTS

by

ROGER LEE

B.A., University of British Columbia, 1964

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

in the Department of

Fine Arts

We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

April, 1966 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of

the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of

British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely

available for reference and study. I further agree that per• mission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly

purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by

his representatives. It is understood that copying or publi•

cation of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed

without my written permission.

Department of ^IXSL r\ V \<,

The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada

Date f\^il *3 j -13 66 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. HANS HOFMANN, A SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY . 1

II. THE THEORIES OF HANS HOFMANN 8

III. THE WEST-COAST CANADIAN STUDENTS OF THE

HANS HOFMANN SCHOOL OF ART 91

ILLUSTRATIONS 127

BIBLIOGRAPHY 131 ABSTRACT

The topic of my thesis is an analysis of Hans Hofmann's theoretical writings on art and their possible influence on his West-Coast Canadian students. I have included a short biography of Hofmann in order that the reader may become aware of the events that led up t o his theoretical development.

Through all available published material on and by Hans Hofmann, I have endeavoured to analyze and to explain his theories which are often quoted but seldom understood. Hofmann"s art was inspired by nature. This inspiration enabled him to create on the canvas the perceivable movements of "push and pull" and "expansion and contraction." These movements are caused by form and color on a bare canvas which creates the combined effect of two and three dimensionality. How• ever, the two dimensionality of the picture plane is retained momentarily because visually it appears two dimensional but past experience of the observer creates the effect of three dimensionality. These movements of "push and pull" and "expansion and contraction," which are perpendicular to each other, are created by the simultaneous development of form and color. If these movements are able to re£lect the artist's mind, iii sensibility, temperament and past experience, a symphonic , a category of the fine arts, or a work of art will have been created. The spirit which has been captured, emits the artist's life for the physical duration of the painting.

Although theseitheories were taught by Hofmann at his schools, he did not expect his students to accept them with• out a second thought. He wanted his students to develop from them as he had developed from others.

The effect of HofmannTs teachings on the contemporary theories of individual students was ascertained by means of a series of interviews with Hofmann's West-Coast Canadian students, Lionel Thomas, Takao Tanabe and Donald Jarvis.

Lionel Thomas was greatly influenced by Hofmann's role as an educator. Both Hofmann and Thomas stimulated their students and helped to raise the artistic level of their individual environments. Takao Tanabe said he had rejected

Hofmann's theories. If Hofmann was influential on Tanabe, the latter has constricted, denunciated or attempted to forget that influence. Jarvis contrasts both Thomas and

Tanabe for he neither accepts or rejects Hofmann's teach• ings. Jarvis has, as Hofmann had fifty years earlier in

Paris, developed from what he learnt from his teacher.

Hofmann's influence has not ended, for Thomas,

Tanabe and Jarvis are teachers and they, with art historians influenced by Hofmann, still propagate his theories. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE PAGE

I. "Fantasia," 1943, by Hans Hofmann . . . . 127

II. "Effervescence," 1944, by Hans Hofmann, . . 127

III. "Magenta and Blue," 1950, by Hans Hofmann . 128

IV. "Le Gilotin," 1953, by Hans Hofmann . . . 128

V. "Above Deep Waters," 1959, by Hans Hofmann . 129

VI. "Pre-Dawn," I960, by Hans Hofmann .... 129

VII. "Landscape of an Interior Place," 1955,

by Takao Tanabe 130

VIII. "Winter Evening," 1958, by Donald Jarvis . . 130 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to the Members of the Fine Arts Department who aided me in the preparation of this thesis. Special acknowledgement should be accorded •Mr. William S. Hart, whose guidance and new insights into Hans Hofmann, deepened the scope of my thesis. I appreciate the assistance given by Miss Melva Dwyer, Miss Diane Cooper and the members of the Fine Arts Division Library. My research at the at Berkeley was aided by Mrs. Mary Anne Craft, Museum Registrar, who made the collection of Hans Hofmann"s catalogues available for my use. Also at Berkeley, I would like to thank Mr. Larry Denean, who showed me the University's collection of Hans Hofmann , and also gave me new insights into Hofmann, the teacher and the artist. Most of all, I would like to thank Hans Hofmann"s students, Mr. Lionel Thomas, Mr. Takao Tanabe and Mr. Donald Jarvis for the time I spent with them during our interviews. Last but not least, I express my gratitude to Miss Marilyn Meister and Mr. Terry Lopston who read over my thesis and to all my friends who encouraged and helped me with the pursuit of this topic. .CHAPTER I

A SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY

This thesis concerns Hans HofmannTs theories and the possible influence of his theories on a selected number of his West-Coast Canadian students. This thesis has been divided into three chapters. The first presents a brief biographical account. The second discusses his theories. The third chapter presents interviews with Lionel Thomas, Takao Tanabe, and Donald Jarvis, Hofmann's West-Coast Canadian Students.

The career of Hans Hofmann has spanned at least two generations, two continents and many international borders. His place in the field of has been established as an artist, educator, and exponent of modern art. Having taught for forty-five years, his many students now disseminate throughout the world his enthusiasm for modern art, his teachings and his methods of teaching. Hofmann's untimely death in. February, 1966, ended thirty-five years on the American art scene. Often thought of as being American-born, he was in fact born in Weissenburg, Germany on March 21, 1880. He was the second son of a government official. His youth was spent with his 2 four brothers and sisters in the German countryside which shone with the green grass and irridescent sparkle of streams. The young Hans loved the summers he spent at his grandfather's farm. Hans was very attached to his grand• father who took on the role of father substitute. By the age of sixteen, Hans left home to work as an assistant to the Director of Public Works of the State of Bavaria. There he was able to pursue his interest in mathematics and science by using its library facilities. Through science he was able to survey nature broadly and objectively and to supply himself with the materials for further creative speculation. During these youthful years, science took up most of his time but he was still able to continue his interest in art and music, namely the violin, piano and organ.

Hofmann*s creative bent lead him to the invention of an electromagnetic comptometer, a machine similar to the present day calculating machine. As he was still under age, his mother had to sign the patent. His father, much pleased with his son's success, sent the boy a thousand marks, and with this small fortune, Hofmann embarked on his career in art by enrolling at art school. However, his scientific career was not yet ended; his creative curiosity lead him to develop a submarine signal device, an , electric bulb that glowed independently of an electric source, and a portable freezing unit, all of which produced no financial profits. While at art school, Hofmann mastered the lessons from a succession of teachers; Michailow, Apse, Ferenzi and

Grimwald. He said that these teachers "had a humanizing

rather than a technical or conceptual influence on (him)."''"

Later Hofmann re-emphasized their role in his development when he said that "their lessons were to be the foundation-

stone of his later teachings as well as his own work." His

teachers were unaware of what was happening in Paris, the 3 vital center for the development of modern art. Hofmann, however, became thoroughly acquainted with the development of modern art. Because the lessons and methods of his teachers has not been revealed, the statement that his teachers were influential in his development cannot be taken as fact. It was through an acquaintance, Willie Schwarz, that Hofmann became aware of Paris. Willie talked of the Impressionists stating, "One must observe nature by means of light reflected from objects, rather than be concerned

with tangible existence of the objects themselves."^ These ideas 'greatly excited Hofmann who became increasingly involved with art. Willie then introduced him to a Berlin collector who in turn introduced Hofmann to Philip Freudenberg "'"Ben Wolf, "The Art Digest Interviews Hans Hofmann," The Art Digest, vol. 19, no. 13, April 1, 1945, p. 52. 2 Hans Hofmann, Search for the Real and Other Essays, Andover,. Mass. , The Addison Gallery of American Art, 1948, p. 10. ^Ibid., p. 11. 4 Loc. cit. 4 the collector's wealthy uncle and a department store owner. This meeting must have been very encouraging, for Philip be• came Hofmann's patron for the next ten years, a virtually unique situation in view of the fact that most of the great innovators of modern twentieth century art suffered many years of poverty.

Hofmann's patron sent him to Paris, the hub of the art world during this crucial period for modern art (1904-1914). This was the nascent period of and , both important in the development of Hofmann's later art. At the Cafe du<; Dome he associated with George Braque, , Juan Gris, Munk, Karsten, Pascin, and Carles. Hofmann was strongly influenced by his close friends and . Hofmann and Matisse attended the evening classes at Colorossi's and painted the same view of the Seine from the same balcony at Hotel Bisson. Delauany lived nearby on la Rue des Grandes Augustins. Hofmann stated recently that he introduced the work of George Seurat to 5 Robert Delaunay; the latter's impact on Hofmann was his

^William C. Seitz, Hans Hofmann, New York, , 1963, p. 7. Dr. H.L.C. Jaffe, a friend and writer of Robert and said in an interview on February 25, 1966, that he does not believe Hofmann brought George Seurat to the eye's of Robert Delaunay, Neo-Impressionist's works were in Paris and could have been seen by Delaunay before Hofmann's arrival in Paris in 1904. 5 expressive potential in the use of pure color. ,Delaunay's application of color to the cubist space formulation was adapted undoubtedly by Hofmann, though he did not say so. Art was not the only bond between these two painters. Madame Delaunay's knowledge of German made it possible for her to translate for Hofmann when his French failed him. In spite of the language barrier, Hofmann absorbed the color and free• dom of the Fauves, the Cubist discipline of George Braque and Pablo Picasso and the color and form of Delaunay's Orphism.

In 1910 while Matisse was in Berlin for the show given him by Cassirer, he saw Philip Freudenberg's collection of Hofmann's work and encouraged the patron to continue support. That same year, Hofmann was also given a one-man show by Cassirer. Support continued until the start of World War I in 1914• Hofmann had returned home to Munich before the outbreak of the war and remained there for the next sixteen years. Because of a lung lesion,^ he was not conscripted into the army.. During the war, he opened his famous School of Modern Art. "I opened my school in Munich in the spring of 7 1915 to clarify the entirely new pictorial approach."

^During an interview, Lionel Thomas has said that Hans Hofmann had tuberculosis and was quite sickly during this period. in his book on Hofmann has said that Hofmann had a weak lung. 7 'Hans Hofmann, Hans Hofmann, New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc ., 1963, p.12. 6

The school provided Hofmann with financial stability and also enabled him to digest and resolve the problems and solutions which he had adopted during his Parisian sojourn.

At the end of the war, the fame of his school spread, resulting in an influx of foreign students to 40 Georgen Strassen in the suburb of Schwabing.

Throughout this post-war period, Hofmann made frequent trips to Paris in order to keep up with new developments in modern art. Hofmann also established his well known summer schools successively at Yugoslavia, Capri and finally St. Tropez. These summer schools were such a success that when he came to America he re-established one at Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Of the American students who attended his classes in Europe, Worth Ryder was the most important because he convinced the Regents of the University of California at Berkeley to ask Hofmann to teach summer school on their campus. Hofmann accepted the invitation and remained in America until his death. He did not return to Germany because his wife had warned him of the impending war and the unappreciative attitude of the Nazis. She later joined him in America.

The lack of artworks previous to 1931 is due to his escape from Nazi Germany. The works that had remained in Germany were either destroyed in the Second World War or have been lost. 7 In the spring of 1931, Hofmann taught at the

Chouinard in Los Angeles and that same year, the California

Legion of Honor gave him his first American one-man show.

From the time of his arrival in America, Hofmann was an educator. After teaching at Chouinard, he taught in New lork at the Arts Students League for two years. Then he opened his own well-known school in 1933• First located at

Lexington Avenue and Fifty-seventh Street, the school later moved to Fifty-second Street and Ninth Avenue and finally to Eighth Street in his location. Hofmann's presence in New York has served to raise up a climate of taste among at least fifty people in America?, that cannot be matched for vigour or correct• ness in Paris or London. No matter how puzzling and ugly the new and original will appear—and it will in• deed appear so—the people who inhabit this climate will not fail to perceive it and hail it.9 Hofmann's long residence in New York made him almost a legend on the American art scene;for over a quarter of a century he taught and supported young American artists. His impact is still being felt, both by second-generation students of his own students, and by those artists at first unfamiliar with his theories who learned about the artist through his quite extensive writings on the theory of art.

9 , "The Present Prospects of Ameri• can Painting and Sculpture," Horizon, No. 93-4, October, 1947, p. 29. CHAPTER II

THE THEORIES OF HANS HOFMANN

The theoretical writings of Hans Hofmann extended over a period of a half a century. Although his ideas are often quoted, no study has attempted to break through his terminology for a thorough explanation of .his theories. In this chapter, his writings will be discussed in relation to the style of his writings and a chronological explanation and elucidation of his theories.

If Hofmann wrote previous to 1931, those writings as were his paintings were lost or destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War. Some of these writings could have found their way to private collections, but their whereabouts have never been disclosed. Upon his arrival in America in 1931, Hofmann published four articles; one for a Berkeley Exhibition catalogue, two for Fortnightly and one for the League. After the last of that series there is another gap of sixteen years. It is possible that Hofmann wrote during this period, for there is a collection of unpublished writings by Hofmann at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1948 the Hofmann one-man retrospective saw the publica- tion of a monograph at the Addison Gallery of American Art. This was the most comprehensive summation of Hofmann*s theories to that date and also included newly developed ideas. In the following years Hofmann published regularly, either through exhibition catalogue explanations, magazine interviews or writings for magazines. While some of the writings reiterated previously published material, three significant articles appeared; "Space Pictorially Realized through the Intrinsic Faculty of Color to Express Volume," (1951) "The Resurrection of the Plastic Arts and The Mystery of Creative Relations," (1953) and "The Color Problem of Pure Painting." (1955) The substantial bulk of Hofmann1s theories is culminated in these articles although he still published up to 1963, the date of the last interview. There were also a large number of monographs and articles on Hofmann after he had achieved renown in 1944. This paper will include the published material up to the end of January, 1966, when this thesis was being completed.

The style of HofmannTs theoretical writings is typically German, detailed and exacting, with complicated gramatical constructions. His earliest known writing was translated from the German by William C. Seitz in the Museum of Modern Art catalogue for his one-man show there in 1963. The articles published after his arrival in America were translated by Glen Wessels and others at the University of California at Berkeley. Wessels' understand- 10 ing of Hofmann's ideas enabled him to translate Hofmann's difficult Germanic usage into fairly easily read English. It is when he does his own translations that the difficulty of Hofmann's writings arises. In these later works, Hofmann's Germanic use of the English language creates a vagueness and incomprehensibility to the unaccustomed read• er. In using "a cloudy metaphysical rhetoric," his communica• tion is limited"!" This difficulty of Hofmann's writings does not arise from his ideas but from the way he has presented them. As will be seen later, Hofmann has con• structed his thoughts on German syntax and merely tran• slated them literally into English, the end product being anomalous to the English reader. This last statement is not a criticism of Hofmann's writings for it is understood that he is not a writer but a painter. He himself undoubted• ly realized his ineptness in expressing himself in the

English language when he said that an idea has its own 2 peculiar medium through which it can be expressed. If the idea happens to be non-literary the person trying to express such an idea will be surmounting an overwhelming obstacle. Hofmann's ideas partially fall into this category when he discusses spiritual and metaphysical ideas, which are often . j ——— , "Hans Hofmann's Life Class," Portfolio and Art News Annual, no.6, Autumn, 1962, p.113. 2 Hans Hofmann, Search for the Real and Other Essays, Andover, Mass., The Addison Gallery of American Art, iy48, p.46. 11 associated with art. His problem is to define his terms accurately and to stay within that definition while in fact he' only vaguely defines terms and there is often change in meaning3 Hofmann's inability to express himself derives from the fact that English is not his mother tongue and that he is not gifted in a verbal sense. While his language is pictorial and visual, he has used the verbal medium to express to other artists and his audience his theories and ideas concerning a work of art.

Hofmann's theoretical writings have been broadly grouped, chronologically, into three areas. Ideas from year to year do not change radically but go through a process of development and metamorphosis. The first group contains the Prospectus of 1915 and the writings of 1931 and 1932 because of the similarity of ideas and the scarcity of material previous to his arrival to America. This section is actually the basis of Hofmann's theories but the language is not as refined and sophistocated as will be seen in the later writings. The second group, or single monograph discusses the Search for the Real of 1948. From this publication a general summation of all of Hofmann's theories is undertaken, relating his ideas to a few pertinent paintings of the period. The third group of works contains

3The change is due often to the development of ideas; he has loosely defined the term at the offset and the development of the idea is difficult to appreciate. 12 the writings done after 194^. These themselves fall into categories of time and subject. The dominant aspect of the development of color as a formal element culminates in the

1955 article, "The Color Problem in Pure Painting." Hofmann's written material will be discussed in relation to his earlier material to show their development. Again a few chosen paintings will be used to illustrate Hofmann's ideas in the actual realm of his paintings. Concluding the detailed study of his writings will be a general discussion and summarization of the theories elucidated by Hofmann in his writings. Hofmann's first group of writings date from

1915 and 1931 - 32. In these articles, Hofmann presented the ideas he absorbed from his Paris stay and defined his stand on art for his new American audience. The earliest existing published writing by Hofmann is a prospectus for his Munich School of Fine Arts in 1915• This piece is significant for it reveals at an early stage, his theories and teachings which will vary only through development during his entire career. His initial statement, "Art does not consist in the objectivized imitation of 4 reality," reveals at once his place in the field of modern art. Already before him, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, Delaunay, and the members of the painters of Paris previous to 1914 were already working in this manner. Henri Matisse had

^"Hans Hofmann, "Prospectus for Munich School of Modern Art," 1915, cited in William C. Seitz, Hans Hofmann, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1963, p. 56. 13 painted the "Green Line," 1905, a portrait of Madame Matisse.

Although his work exhibits an imitation of reality, Matisse employed color for the creation of effects. While the actual shape of the face is a likeness of Madame Matisse,

Henri Matisse painted the nose and the forehead green. His use of color was "to serve expression as well as possible."^

Color is expressive in the formation of mood and the quality of spatial recession and projection. The cubist derived their theories from the paintings of Cezanne. The cubists* inclusion of the conceptual approach of Iberian and African sculpture can be seen in Picasso's "Les Desmoiselles d«Avignon," 1907. Hofmann's close friend Robert Delaunay had already painted his "Sun Disks," 1912, where objective reality cannot be seen at all. Delaunay played with his discoid shapes and pure colors to achieve a perceivably luminous and vibrant surface animation. HofmannTs non- objective approach to art revealed a similarity to his close

Parisian friends Henri Matisse and Robert Delaunay. This similarity suggests their possible influence on Hofmann.

Hofmann's contact with the Parisian artist's is

'Henri Matisse, "Notes of a Painter." (1908) cited in Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Matisse: His Art and His Public, New York,. The Museum of Modern Art, 195T7~p7T2"i. 14 6 significant for they gave him the basis of his ideals. During his Munich period Hofmann presented to his students a coherently formulated theory of art derived from his

Parisian friends. These theories were necessitated by the mere fact of teaching. Students were eager for an organized system which he had developed over the years. Hofmann stated in his Prospectus for the young artists, that he himself tried to "detach from schools and directions, to 7 evolve a personality of his own."' His Prospectus for the Munich School was his first concrete formulation of what he had learnt in Paris. In it he discusses form and nature, creative expression, artists, and a work of art. He believed that form in painting was stimulated by nature, though it was not bound to nature in objective imitation. Nature was the source of inspiration for the sensitive artist. He would also be affected by the medium employed, through which the inspiration was trans• formed by him into the reality of the painting. "Creative expression is thus the spiritual translation of inner con• cepts into form, resulting from the fusion of these ^Who is actually influential and what were the basis for these influences cannot be stated definitely for Hofmann does not talk or write about his Paris years. When the un• published paper held by the Museum of Modern Art, Glenn Wessels and the University of California at Berkeley are re• vealed, it may be possible to ascertain the actual facts of this period. Without these papers, it would be pure academic heresay to list by whom and how Hofmann was actually influenced. 7Hofmann, "Prospectus for Munich School...,"1915,P.56. intuitions with artistic means of expression in a unity of spirit and form, brought about by intuition which in turn results from the functioning of the entire thought and feeling complex accompanied by vigorous control of spiritual means." The above sentence, characteristic of Hofmann*s writing style, means in essence that a painting (the creative expression) is the combination of nature and the medium. Nature inspires in the artist a thought pattern which results in spirit and the form of the painting. These two qualities are then combined with the medium and the inspiration from the medium, all under the control of the mental processes. There results a fusion of a mental process with the physical means of expression.

"A work of art is in spirit a self contained whole, whose spiritual and structural relationship permit no individual parts despite the multiplicity of depicted objects."^ Hofmann*s definition of art is a combination of the two systems of organism; the first system being an organic whole in which "every element within it, implies every other, ""^and the second being a system in which "an

Loc.cit. 9 Loc.cit. ^Stephen C. Pepper, World Hypotheses, a Study in Evidence, Berkeley, University of uaiirornia, 19V2, P.300. ... 16 alteration or removal of any element would alter every other n element or even destroy the whole system." This organistic structure of Hofmann's theory of art is, in part, one of the determinates of Hofmann's long and complicated style of writing. Once he has mentioned one aspect of the theory, it implies another and cannot be thought of as complete until it has the other facts added to it,

In the series of articles written after Hofmann's arrival in America in 1931, the organistic structure of his theory can be seen well. While dealing with all aspects of art such as laws, reality and appearance, spiritual projection, medium of expression, formal and creative elements, depth and movement, teaching, symphonic and decorative painting, he also told of arts relation to culture.

Any art form or cultural pursuit, he believed, "en- 12 riched and gave deeper content to life." Like a religious feeling, art also searched "to understand the essence of all things."^ "Artistic expression and appreciation was necessary to counter-balance life."*^ Art to him was an essential to life as food is. It gives power and "satisfies the soul." x!Loc.cit. 12 Hans Hofmann, "Painting and Culture,"Fortnightly, vol. 1, no. 1, September 11, 1931, p.6.

^Loc.cit.

^Hofmann, "Painting and Culture," p.7. 17 Because of art's ability to energize the observer, the aim of art is to "vitalize form by organic relationships between the formal elements, with color and light integrated 15 into the planes." In painting, the effect of the vitalized form must take into account the Laws of Painting, namely:

1. The entity of the picture plane must be preserved. 2. The essence of the picture plane is its two dimension• ality which must achieve three dimensionality by means of the creative process. 3. In coloring, the surface of the canvas should receive the greatest possible richness in light emanation effects, and at the same time should retain the trans• parency of a jewel." These laws were founded on the basis of our perception of reality and appearances. Hans Hofmann discussed his concept of perception in an Article, "Plastic Creation," published in the League 1932. What one sees in the exterior world, "appearance," is two dimensional while in actual fact, that world, reality, is three dimensional. "We see reality only through appearance which in turn has the effect upon us of 17 being a three dimensional reality." The difference betwe "appearance" and "effect" is that the former is based on

Ibid., p. 5. 16 Hans Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," Fortnightly, vol. 1, no. 13, February.26, 1932, p. 10. 17Hans Hofmann, "Plastic Creation," (1932), cited in Hans Hofmann, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1963, p. 35. 18 seeing alone whereas "effect" is the result of the appearance from a certain experience. "Effects," then, that come from an oil painting, are independent of the oil paints themselves but they produce these effects because "the; paints are set 18 together in their spiritual relationship." Their placement creates what Hofmann calls a "super-realistic effect,""^ being in fact an emotional reaction. The super-realistic is con• tained in the effect of a thing rather than in actuality.

"What in a two-dimensional fixation of appearance would perhaps only be the difference of a fraction of a millimeter would as effect under certain circumstances mean an infinity in a work 20 of art." The combination of the senses affords in "our spiritual projection the emotional experience (which) can be gathered together as an inner perception by which we can com• prehend the essence of things beyond mere bare sensory ex• perience. "21 This extended inward experience enables the viewer to get to the heart and crucial factors of the object and to see it in all its relations and connections. "The spiritual projection or contemplation develops the sense of space because all of our sensory apparatus is required." -^Loc. cit.

^Loc. cit.

2QLoc.cit. 21 Hofman, "Plastic Creation," p.36. 22 Loc.cit. 19 The experience of space which is disclosed to us by the sub• jective spiritual projection of the impulses is a plastic and living unity. This last statement reflects Hofmann's aim of art—the vitalization of form. We experience space in a paint• ing by the activation of our senses. Therefore, if an artist wishes to create a painting, he must strive to affect the viewer with action and vitality from the form and color paint• ed on the canvas.

The process of creation is based upon the power to

present and to spiritually project. The spiritual interpreta- 23 tion of the medium of expression is the result of such power. In this way expression medium is a result of such powers. In this way, the creativity of an artist depends on his general ability to project spiritually and his specific ability to empathize and to receive from the medium of expression. A more encompassing statement of creation by Hofmann appeared a year previous to the one sighted above. In the earlier one he said that creation was dependent on nature's law, the artist's spiritual contact with nature and the medium of expression. "The creative artist is to parallel nature's creativity by translating the impulse received from nature into the medium 2ZL of expression and thus vitalize this medium." ^ The apparent

23Loc.cit. 2.L Hofmann, "Painting and Culture," 1931, P«6. differences with these two statements is the inclusion in the earlier version of "nature's law" and "medium of expression." While it is not stated in the 1932 version, Hofmann does refer to these two qualities when he said that "creativity in the creative process is based upon an experience (knowledge of nature's laws), which simultaneously also stimulated the essence of the medium through which the artistic expression 25 results." ' Therefore the apparent difference arises only because of Hofmann's usage of the English language. A slight variation in language is also seen in the discussion of medium. This modification can be related,as in the previous case, probably to Glenn Wessels' more fluent translation into the English language. In both, the nature of the medium must be mastered. In the 1931 article, it states that "the medium can be made to resonate and vibrate when stimulated by the impulse coming directly from the 26 natural world," while in the 1932 article, the medium of expression can be set into vibration and tension by mastery of the principles and meaning of the nature of the medium, "which has has its own laws, which are to be exclusively mastered intuitively out of the development of the creation."^ 25Hofmann, "Plastic Creation," 1932,p.36.

26Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1932, p.7. 27 'Hofmann, "Plastic Creation," 1932, p.36. 21

The earlier article states that the impulse of nature through the artist's mind can stir him to creativity if he has mastered the medium while the latter says that the medium can be "mastered intuitively out of the development of the creation." The later article shows that the artist can still create a great work while searching the pos• sibilities of the medium, for the "possibilities of the 28 medium are unlimited." In the 1932 section Hofmann broadened the range of possibilities of a medium while in the section concerning the elements of a painting he tightened up and further de• fined. The two articles differentiate between formal and creative elements. "The formal elements in painting are line, plane, volume and the resulting complexes. These are 29 elements of construction for a vitalized art." The vita- lization derives from "light and color integrated into 30 planes." Color and light are creative elements for they vitalize the formal elements. The peculiarity within these statements centers around the adjectival modifiers, "formal" and "creative." Within these two words there is a unifying factor for the elements of painting. Planes are discussed in both formal and creative elements. It appears as if Hofmann 28ha s made an arbitrary differentiation when in fact Hofmann, "Painting and Culture," 1931, p. 6. 29 'Hans Hofmann, cited in Hans Hofmann Exhibition Cata• logue, Aug. 5-22, Berkeley, University of California, 1931.

30T Loc. cit. 22 the two are related; one uses the formal elements for the creative act in painting. It seems peculiar to differen• tiate from creative^ and formal aspects of a painting by merely color and light, while the other qualities are in• herent in both." Are not these discrepencies possibly caused by Hofmann's ineptness with the English language and possibly his translators' misinterpretation?

Hofmann's formal elements are similar to Paul Klee's formative elements. Klee discussed the movement of the point to form a line and the line's movement to form a 31 plane. Hofmann and Klee incorporated the line and the plane into their respective formal elements. Klee differed from Hofmann by stating the origin of the line to the point whereas Hofmann further defined the plane. It joins with other planes to form volumes and formal complexes. A variation of their formal elements is seen because each has developed either the point or the line. Both, however, in• corporate the line and the plane. This similarity and

Hofmann's later development from the linear concept to the planar concept suggests that Hofmann knew of Klee's writ• ings. Both writers also discussed movement, the subjective theory of space and relationship of colors. No published material has appeared concerning any contact between Hofmann 31 Paul Klee, "From Point to Line," cited in Jurg Spiller, Paul Klee: The Thinking Eye, New York, George Wittenborn, 1961, pp. 103-120. 23 and Klee, but Hofmann did mention the Bauhaus with which

Klee was associated.

Hofmann used the formal and creative elements to create forms in space. Unlike Renaissance painters he did not create a space, a hole-in-the-wall with forms placed within it. But rather he, as his Parisian friends had done, solved the form problem in relation to the picture plane

32 because "form exists through space and space through form." 33

"Form must be balanced by space," and vice versa. "What

exists in form must also exist in space."34 Space and form are interrelated in that the "space in an object incor• porates the objective world in its limits, and space in 3 5 front of and behind the object, infinity." The further relationship between form and space can be seen in Hofmann's

discussion of positive and negative space. "The conception

of the vacancy, the unfulfilled space' as a negative form

is necessary to reconcile the positive form, the fulfilled

space and is therefore an object." The unity of form and space to the total space "exists in three dimensions which corresponds to the two dimensional quality of the 37 picture plane." "The object world and the sum of all 32Hofmann, "Plastic Creation," 1932, p. 37. 33Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1932, p. 10. Lionel Thomas. Interview with writer, Jan. 16, 1966. 35Hofmann, "Plastic Creation," 1932, p. 37. 3^Loc. cit.

37Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1932, p. 10. 24 three dimensional elements gives us in the opitcal manifes• tation, the two dimensional space fulfillment in the ap• pearance of nature, the form and space problem is identical 38 with the essence of the picture plane." "We see the two dimensional (appearance by the quality of the picture plane) 39 but we comprehend the three dimensional (effect)." There• fore the solution of a painting on the two dimensional pic• ture plane is paralleled'tooptical vision in which a two dimensional appearance has the effect of a three dimensional manifestation. In achieving the three dimensional effect, one must remember not to destroy the inherent two dimension• ality of the picture plane, as stated in Hofmann's Painting

Laws. "One can place three dimensional forms on the picture plane without disturbing the two dimensional quality of the picture plane since the appearance and the picture plane

(both two dimensional) are identical in their essence."^

In achieving a sense of the three dimensional, depth,

"a sense of movement develops."^ That movement is merely illusory. The ability to create the illusion determines the quality of the work for "Movement does not exist without life [and] movement is the expression of life. . . .Enliven• ed Hofmann, "Plastic Creation," 1932, p. 37.

39Ibid., p. 38.

40T . • Loc. cit.

^Loc. cit. ment depends on the facility for emotional experiencing in the artist, which in its turn, determines the degree of spiritual projection into the medium of expression."

These movements and depths can be achieved by the psychological expression of color, not merely as a mood or an emotional tone but by the juxtaposition of colors to achieve the projection of one color area in relation to the recession of another. This theory of the dynamic quality of color is expanded in the 1951 article "Space Pictorially Realized through the Intrinsic Faculty of the Colors to Express Volumes," which will be discussed later.

In 1931, Hofmann set up two categories, the formal elements and the creative elements. Color was attached to form. Formal elements consisted of lines planes and the resulting formal complexes. Creative elements consisted of light and color integrated into planes. These two categories of elements were synthesized in 1932. Formal and creative elements became one. Hofmann stated, "Color is only an effect of light on form in relation to form and its inherent texture.. . . Form exists because of light and light by means of form."*4'3 Hofmann realized that color and

^Loc. cit.

^Hofmann, "Plastic Creation," 1932, p.36. 26 form had to coexist. They were mutually dependent on each other. This dependence reflects Hofmann's organistic theory in which each factor implies another and no one fac• tor can be left out. Formal elements imply creative ele• ments, and vice versa. The two distinct classes of 1931 are combined to form one in 1932.

The further inclusiveness of his theory is seen in the relationship between form and space in which form ex• ists because of space and space exists because of form, which in turn exists only by the means of light and vice versa. He then continues the unified configuration by say• ing that the effect of light in relation to its form and its inherent texture is color. From this it can be seen that he relates form with space, light and color. All the above interrelationships must be arranged so as to be based on the concept of spatial unity, the relation between form and space. Because light is related to form and form to space, light unity is related to spatial unity. Light unity is created by the understanding of the effect of light complexes and by the "creation of a color unity"44 achieved when the recession and projection of color is understood and when tonal gradations are taken into account.

44Ibid., p. 37. 27

This incompassing outlook required, by the artist's total mental functioning is a facet of Hofmann's ideal.

Through the complete occupation of the mind, a spiritual realization can be attained by the sensitive artist. This realization is the only way of externalizing the mental function, or as Hofmann calls it, inner sensation. "When the impulses which emotionalize the artist, are integrated with the medium of expression, every motivation of the soul can be translated into a spiritual motivation"4^ as seen in the entity of the painting.

"This work of art is the product of the artist's power for conscious feeling and of his sensitivity to life in nature and life within the limits of his medium."4^

That work of art reflects the "sensorial and emotional world in for the artist." It is "sensory raw material blended to id a spiritual unity through the legitimate use of the medium."

Through exaggerated differentiation the painting acquires the highest enrichment of its surface. It becomes monumental "by the most exact and refined relation between /. Q the parts."^ This type of painting is known as Symphonic for by, with and from color, form is intensified in sub- L 5

^Hofmann, Exhibition Catalogue, Berkeley, 1931.

46Hofmann, "Painting and Culture," 1931, p. 6.

47Hofmann, "On the Aims of Painting," 1932, p. 7.

48Ibid.', p. 8.

49Ibid., p. 9. 2B ordination to spatial and spiritual unity in large present• ational areas of light and form. Color is the real building 50 medium in symphonic painting."^ Hofmann says that in this way, color attains the greatest fullness and form the great- 51 est richness as Cezanne achieved in his work. Colors are made to project and to recede by the means of an interval, being "color planes standing in greatest contrast as possible

to all its neighbours within the balance of the whole."52

Hofmann*s use of the musical term, Symphonic, for a

certain class of paintings could imply his knowledge of

Wassily Kandinsky's Concerning the Spiritual in Art, in 53 which symphonic and melodic painting styles are discussed.

Kandinsky and Hofmann also discussed Nature as the source of

inspiration,inner feelings and the psychological and

physiological effect of color to produce three dimensional

space and form. Although Kandinsky's book was generally

read by the avant garde, after its publication in 1912, by

that time Hofmann would have heard of the synesthetic idea

of relating painting to music. Synesthesia had been for a

long time a European tradition when Hofmann arrived in

5QLoc.cit.

^Loc.cit.

^^Loc.cit. 53Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, (1912), New York, Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc., 1947. 29

Paris in 1904. Possibly in Paris he heard of Kandinsky's

Concerning the Spiritual in Art though Hofmann never

wrote or spoke of such a contact. If Hofmann had read

Kandinsky's book, it was probably after his return to

Munich in 1914. However Clement Greenberg believes that

Kandinsky had no influence on the theories of Hofmann be•

cause by the time Hofmann had returned to Germany in 1914,

his theories had already been formulated from the great 54 French masters of the twentieth century. Hofmann was not consistent in using musical terms to class paintings. His other category of paintings was called decorative. Decorative painting employs some aspects of symphonic painting but the former emphasizes the greatest simplification. Intellect and emotion are used for the common end of simplicity. Often this can lead to abstraction when "rhythmic relations conditioned

by space and musical contacts"^ are taken into account. Always the problem of space must be perfect for "the wall must remain a wall and the picture must remain a picture." One must not create a hole-in-the-wall as the painters of the Renainssance had perfected. This does not mean that

^^Clement Greenberg, Hofmann, Paris, George Fall, 1961, p.16.

55Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1932, p.10.

-^Loc.cit. 3Q objective values cannot be used for it is in Decorative painting that "objective values are made more effective

57 by rhythmic relations." ' These objective values are not merely tastefully and fancifully arranged but require the same procedure as those of Symphonic painting.

Decorative painting becomes a great design if the artist is able "to simplify to the essentials and to eg organize the ever present life essentials." "Great pictorial creation is achieved by a highly developed sensibility as regards the natural world and upon strong pictorial feeling. It may carry additional burden of 59 the literary, dogmatic or political," but it is not necessary. Through art one is able to become immortal if he is "able to pervade his work with his soul and spirit.

It is the spiritual and mental content of the work of art that is the quality in a painting and not the allegory or symbollic meaning.

Besides the above material on the theory of art in painting, Hofmann being a teacher discussed his other pro• fessional field, teaching. Art can only be taught to one 57Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1932, p.9.

^Loc.cit.

^Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1932, p.ll.

60T Loc.cit. 31 who possesses a "highly developed sensitivity for quality. The laymen who understands art through a receptive ex• perience shares passively what the artist out of product- ive experience feels and creates." The teacher must direct students toward the "enrichment of their life, guide their personality and develop their sensibility to

Tfeel into'^2 animate or inanimate things with sympathy."^3 "By enforced discipline, he shortens the road to understand•

ing and develops the students natural endowments."^4 The teacher most of all must have "the power of quick sympathy and understanding to produce artists, comprehending teachers, art understanding and art enjoyment in general.

For the next fifteen years Hans Hofmann did not publish but in the formative years of the "American-type painting" or "" he followed his directions for a teacher and helped direct the new genera• tion of American artists to their form of art. Although none of the members of the so-called New York School of

6lHofmann, "Painting and Culture," 1931, p.5. Zip "Feel into" could be also translated as empathy because these two terms are translated into the same German word, die Einfuhlung. HofmannTs later 1952 de• finition of word empathy includes artistic realization. ^Hofmann, "Painting and Culture," 1931, p.6. 64Ibid., p.7.

65Ibid., p..6. 32 Abstract Expressionism attended Hofmann's classes, his presence invigorated the New York art scene. He brought over from Europe the ideas of the Fauves and the Cubists which could be seen in his work of this period. His weekly criticisms of student's work was often attend• ed by members of the art circle in the Greenwich Village area. He belonged to the "Club" whose members included the abstract expressionists.

During the mid-forties the abstract expressionists began to receive attention and recognition. It is in this period, 1944, that Hans Hofmann had his first one- man show in New York at 's "Art of this Century Gallery." He held exhibitions yearly in New York, mainly at the Sammuel Kootz Gallery. Also during the mid-forties, Hofmann taught a number of West-Coast Canadian artists who will be discussed later in the paper. The most important event of this period for Hofmann was perhaps his one-man retrospective show at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts. At that show, a monograph-catalogue was published containing some of his teachings, older essays, the new article "The Search for the Real in the Visual Arts," and his well-known theory

66 Donald Jarvis, Interview with writer, February 1, 1966. 33

of "push and pull." As this publication was widely read by artists and comprises the second period of Hofmann*s writings, a detail discussion will now be considered with reference to his earlier writings of 1931 and 1932.

Fundamentally, The Search for the Real does not vary a great deal from Hofmann's earlier writings. The fifteen years in America has improved his writing style and clarified his thought. This clarification was un• doubtedly reinforced by the artistic community of New York and his necessity of an organized concept which was present• ed to his students. In this monograph Hofmann presented in the now famous terms, "push and pull," "expansion and contraction." These movements, as seen in a painting, are explained in relation to the problem of form and color and their relationship to the fine and applied arts. These theories of Hofmann were then applied to two of his better known paintings, "Effervescence" and "Fantasia." The final section of Hofmann's monograph are then discussed in relation to quality in a work of art. The idea of "the significance of a work of art

being determined by the quality of its growth,"^7 reflects the organic and organistic quality of his theories as published in the previously cited material. The work of

67Hans Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p. 46. 34 art, usually painting or sculpture, is the physical carrier of something beyond physical reality, the surreal.

It is the task of the artist who receives the surreal forces to transpose these forces into the physical carrier, the medium of expression. In this way an artist• ic creation is "the metamorphosis of the external physical aspects of a thing into a self sustaining spiritual 68 reality." This "spiritual reality" is not organic in the sense of possessing an actual life organism but does have a life created in it perceivable to the viewer.

This life is incited by the artist's placement of form and color in such a way as to create the effect of move• ment and vitality. "Movement does not exist without life. 69 Movement is the expression of life." The creation of spiritual reality depends on "metaphysical perceptions, the search for the essential 70 nature of reality." One cannot simply change a physical entity into the realm of the spiritual by mere placement. A fragment of thought in itself is meaningless until other fragment68s T are related so as to form an idea. In the same Loc. cit. 69 7Hofmann, "Plastic Creation," 1932, p. 38.

70 Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p. 46. way physical entities can be made meaningful by relation• ships to other entities. The actual physical character• istics of a medium of expression differentiate the various arts for "a plastic idea must be expressed with plastic means just as a musical idea is expressed with musical 71 means, or a literary idea with verbal means."' In each case the expression of the idea is achieved by placing two entities in an emotionally controlled situation which creates a third entity of higher order. This higher order is spiritual, a creation of the mind under those special circumstances. In such a relation there is mutual re• flection; each entity affects the other and vice versa. The limits for the relations in painting is determined by the extent of the canvas or the piece of paper. Any act done to the canvas naturally creates a contraction of the surface area but also that act is always answered back in the opposite direction. In this way the canvas appears to"contract and to expand in simultaneous existence, a characteristic of space."72 The picture plane appears to have depth and space. This space is not naturalistic for that is a "special case, a portion of what is felt about three dimensional experience.

Loc. cit.

Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p.48. 36 This expression of the artist's experience is thus 73 incomplete." The depth and space that appears on the picture surface does not destroy its two dimensionality for "it is the conceptual completeness of a plastic experience (plastic creation without destroying a flat surface) that warrants the preservation of the 71 two dimensionality." The depth that is created is not achieved by the perspective system of the Renaissance painters but rather "by the creation of forces in the sense of 'Push and

Pull'.,?75 "Since one cannot create 'real depth' by carving a hole in the picture, and since one should not attempt to create the illusion of depth by tonal grada• tion, depth as a plastic reality must be two dimensional in a formal sense as well as in the sense of color." In this statement, Hofmann reveals that painting to him entails both form and color, whereas in the 1932 article he stated that art vitalized form. "To create the phenomena of push and pull on a flat surface, one has to understand that by nature the picture plane reacts automatically in the opposite

73Ibid., p.49.

7^Loc. cit.

Loc. cit.

76Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p.50. 37 77 direction of the stimulus received." When a square area of color is placed on the bare canvas an equal force is directed off the canvas, perpendicular to the canvas. Hofmann's statement, though similar to movement and counter-movement of 1932, defines the direction more ex• plicitly and the actual results of an application of paint to the picture plane. When two areas are painted, a relationship is set up between them. Our eyes focus on each and on both causing one to become more accentuated and therefore project and the other to recede. When more than two areas are involved, the eye and the mind try to solve the multiple entities by pairing the areas to create the spiritual higher third. This higher third then can be further paired with another area until the whole painting is stimulated by the action of pairing and creat• ing higher thirds. In creating such thirds, the canvas is expanded and contracted. The two areas are unified to draw the edges of the canvas together or are separated to affect an increase to the surface area. "Push and pull" and "expansion and contraction" can now be seen as being forces perpendicular to each other with push and pull, perpendicular to the picture surface and expansion and contraction, parallel to the picture surface.

Loc. cit. 38 Push and pull can be easily created by mere planes of different colors. Hofmann saw in Cezanne's later works

"an enormous sense of volume, breathing, pulsating, expand• ed ing-contracting through his use of color." Mood is created as is the action of push and pull. The projection and recession of color is only attained if the artist is sensitive to the creation of this surreal effect. He does 7Q not use color alone, for painting is "forming with color."'7 Color is an integral part of form. This form is based on the planar concept as the Cubists had done. They recognized the value of the picture plane's two dimensionality as did the Impressionists al• though the latter were really "searching for the entity of 80 light, expressed through color." The use of form and color is found in the fine and applied arts, the latter being commercial or decorative 81 as stated in the 1931 article. The difference between the fine and applied arts lies in the way of regarding the medium of expression. The applied artist arranges the physical expressive elements merely pleasingly and taste• 78 fully. The fine artist "empathizes and feels the intrinsic Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p. 51.

7<7Loc. cit. Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p. 52. Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1932, p. 9-10. 39 qualities of the medium of expression." Hofmann believed that the concept of the union of the fine and applied arts at the Bauhaus to be a tragedy, for the fine arts "concern man's relation to the world as a spiritual being,"^3 whereas applied arts have merely a utilitarian purpose.

"The discoveries of the Bauhaus were mainly directed to• wards a vital surface animation by abstract design. "^

The decorative artist does not need to empathize, and the result is merely two dimensional. For a decorative art to become a fine art, that work of art must possess "the phenomena of plastic movement (for that) determines whether or not a work belongs in the category of fine arts or in

d r the category of applied arts." J This last statement de• fines perfectly how Hofmann differentiates between the two and shows the development of the concept of movement and vitality in the fine arts. In the earlier articles, art was to have "vitalized form,"movement. While still retaining this concept, he has defined the limits of his movements, expansion and contraction, push and pull and how to create them in a theoretical way.

g2Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p.52. 83Ibid., p.53.

^4Loc. cit.

^Loc. cit. 40 The ability to create this spirit of movement in the work of art will determine its quality. Once this vitality is achieved, the work of art lives forever.

As stated in the 1931 article, "that one is immortal in art who is able to pervade his work with his soul and spirit."0 The artist transfers the vitality and energy of his inspired self to the medium and this energy retains its momentum as long as the work remains in the same physical state. "The real in art never dies because its 87 nature is predominantly spiritual." ' Hofmann believes that if one is able to vitalize a painting until it be• comes spiritual, the artist will become immortal for the spiritual is derived from the artist and his experience. While the "Search for the Real" is only a portion of the monograph, the rest of the book is devoted to a previously published and discussed article, "Painting and Culture,"00 and "Excerpts from the Teaching of Hans Hofmann." This last article is also mainly derived from the previously discussed material but new elements can be found. In the section dealing with the line and the plane, he says that "the pictorial structure is based on the plane concept. The line originates in the meeting of two °~6Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1932, p. 11. °*7Hofmann, 'Search for the Real, 1948, p. 54. °"°*Hofmann, "Painting and Culture," 193.1-,p. 5-7. 41 planes.n^ In his article, "Plastic Creation" of 1932, he said that "the line was a further development of the 90 plane—the smallest painting plane. TT The change is probably due t o the increasing awareness of the use of planes in relation to color. Works of this period, 1940 to 1950, show less use of line to further define planes. In "Fantasia," 1943, and "Effervescence," 1944, line gradually loses its purpose as a defining structure. The white dribble of paint in "Fantasia" (plate I) over• lays areas of heavily pigmented surfaces. The line, as stated in the 1932 article, is the smallest painting plane. The spiral and calligraphic designs of paint drip project from its beautifully mottled yellow, green, mauve and blue background. In the lower left hand corner there is still the trace of the line as a method of definition. The sideways "C"-like formation painted in blue-black, is defined by a white dripped line. The white sharpens the edge of the black against the mauvish receding area. A cavern-like formation is created by the white definition. This small area contrasts with his theories of expansion and contraction and push and pull. For here a naturalistic hole is created on the surface of the canvas as Renaissance painters had done. The contrast of the "C"-like shape and

89 Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, P»70. 90 Hofmann, "Plastic Creation," 1932, p.37. 42 the dark downward directional device in the center lead the eye to the base of the canvas. Hofmann manages to excape from the hole-in-the-wall effect by placing a small area of the same blue-black and an area of green to the left center. The eye is taken in a r,U"-like route and gradually lead into areas of increased color intensity.

A transitional passage can be seen in the upper left hand corner green area where the green of the left center has- been combined with the yellow of the upper area. The eye is caught by the brightness of the upper yellow area and directed down to the lower left hand corner. Black and green areas work the eye up to the transitional green area and the eye cycle begins again. The movement of the eye is not continuously rotating, for the dripped linear white areas detract the eye in an oscilating motion parallel to the picture plane. This parallel oscillation is what

Hofmann meant by contracting and expanding forces. A similar motion is also set up perpendicular to the picture plane. The alternating projection and recession from the canvas of the yellow and white drip areas is what

Hofmann meant by push and pull. Push and pull and expansion and contraction differ because their direction of forces are perpendicular -to each other.

The multi-directions of the forces set up tension.

The expanding and projecting forces of the yellow is 43 contrasted and balanced in a dynamic equilibrium by the more sombre and heavy lower areas. The overlays of white drip tie the composition together and also create a live• liness of movement and direction. The drip areas then, are used for both their linear and planar qualities.

In "Effervescence", 1944, (plate II) there is an absence of the linear elements. Each has been set or dripped as a planar unit. Lines created are the meeting of two planes of color. In the upper left hand corner, the mauve is blended over the green to hide the actual edges. Even the thin drip lines in the painting are not linear for they are placed against a contrasting back• ground in order for them to project. In the lower left hand corner, the black drip oozing from the central area contrasts with its red background. Though almost linear, the red on the yellow background overlaid with the black drip undulates and creates a push and pull effect. If the yellow projects, the red recedes and the eye does not focus on the black drip. If the red projects, the black projects further - it is the focus - and the yellow recedes. This whole composition is basically formed by the alteration of focus to create a vital painting. The paint• ing is composed semi-symmetrically with a diagonal crossing from the upper right to the lower left. The design on either side of the so-called diagonal are not exact but 44 similar shapes are represented in the contrasting color in an obvious design for balance. The large central white mass with its two horn-like drippings is reflected in a similar black area to the right. As was stated earlier, the shapes are not exactly alike for there is also a conscious attempt to achieve a dynamic equilibrium. The large central black area at the top of the canvas bears little resemblance to the white area of the bottom center. Here one can see that Hofmann has taken into account the attraction to the top black area and the basic left-right direction of the base caused by the bright yellow. The large black area can be followed through to form a vertical black blob. This appearance causes a horizontal and vertical effect. If the eye shifts slightly to the top from the bottom, a different focus is attained and the upper black blob expands off the canvas as does the yellow-white bottom area.

The yellow and mauve areas around the corners create movement in the push and pull realm. At once the yellow projects and the mauve recedes and vice versa. The motion is not vibrant or else the eye would be shaken off the canvas. The area of green to the upper left balances the blacker area of right center. Actually the mass of the green attracts the eye to the mauve because the contrast is so subtle and not blatant as in the yellow and black area. By means of the color planes ., . 45 oriented to the direction of force and to balance, the 91 dynamic equilibrium of "Effervescence" is achieved. The total effect created in these paintings is "a deep artistic expression, the product of a conscious feeling for reality. This concerns both reality of nature and the reality of the intrinsic life of the medium of expression."92 Consciousness is the main factor that differentiates the work of an artist and the work of a child. Undoubtedly the work of Hans Hofmann and other Abstract Expressionists have been compared to the art of the kindergarten. The art of a child is free from all conscious inhibitions. The work is the express• ion of the child's subconscious and his emotion. The work created by an adult artist is significant if there is "a consciousness of experience as the work develops and is emotionally enlarged through the greater command of the 93 expression medium.n" "The work of art goes through many phases of development but in each phase it is always a 94 work of art." The adult is able to control and use the medium of expression to express what he wants whereas the 9 The student did not see enough of Hofmann's work to feel qualified to discuss any more works, other than those seen by the student either in Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Berkeley or Los Angeles.

92Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p.67. 93 Loc. cit. 94 _ Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p.69. 46 child lacks the technical control and manual dexterity. The adult inclusion of the consciousness is dual in that sense that it is intellectual and spiritual. This spirit• ual, derived from the unconscious, has been brought to the conscious level and put under the control of the intellect thereby making it an aspect of the intellect. The resulting "idea can only be materialized with the help of a medium of expression, the inherent qualities of which must surely be sensed and understood in order to 95 become the carrier of an idea."'^ "The work of art is finished from the point of view of the artist when feeling and perception have re- 96 suited in a spiritual synthesis."^ The medium of ex• pression and the artist's translation of his "accumulation of experience gained from nature as the source of his 97 inspiration"y are combined to create the work of art; an entity above either of its two basis, a higher third. The artist has so fully expressed his idea that he himself is self-satisfied. The satisfaction that the observer feels is aesthetic. "Aesthetic enjoyment is caused by the perception 95Ibid., p. 70.

9^Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p.69. 97Loc. cit. 47 of hidden laws. The aim of art is always to provide such joys for us in every form of expression. The faculty to enjoy rests with the observer."98 An idea transformed by the artist into the medium of expression is presented to the observer. What is attained from the work solely de• pends on the observer.

Hofmann's third group of writings contains numerous short articles from exhibitions at the Sammuel Kootz Gallery and at the University of Illinois' Exhibition of Contemporary American Art. Also included are interviews and published articles. In this last group of writings, the role of color in painting is realized and the previous• ly cited aspect of a work of art are further defined. The writings have not been organized strictly chronologically but grouped according to subject and theory development.

In 1949, an interview for Arts and Architecture a appeared and in 1951, an explanation for the University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Art. In both these articles, Hofmann replied to the question, what makes an Artist? and discussed the limitations of his senses and their effect on his perception of appearances. Hofmann realized that when the artist is able to affect the observer because the artist has an inherent quality within himself. It has not been learnt but was

Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p.74. 48 inborn. The artist has a"creative instinct, a searching oo mind and the highest exhaltation of the soul."77

With these traits he is able to "transpose the deepest and weightiest experience into a new dimension of the spirit."-1"00 The work of art he creates is a new reality, and also reflects "the whole behaviour of the man (artist), ethical convictions, and his awareness of creative 101 responsibilities." Hofmann felt that the humanistic 102 quality of Paris allowed for his freedom of development. In that atmosphere he could create with "a free and universal interworking of all contemporaries with constant 103 reference to what he received and learnt from the past." J Although he held a reverence for the past the only valid use, in his opinion, of the past was the depiction of his own vision. What the artist sees around him has been affected by one's past experience. One has "definite ideas about the object in spite of the fact that the object may or

9%ans Hofmann, "Reply to Questionaire and Comments on a Recent Exhibition," Arts and Architecture, vol. 66, no. 11, Nov., 1949, p. 27.

100T .. Loc. cit.

101Hofmann, "Reply to Questionaire ...," 1949, p. 45. 102- . - Loc. cit.

103Hofmann, "Reply to Questionaire ...," 1949, p. 46. 104 may not have multi-subordinate parts." We see an object at different times from different viewpoints and these facts are all used in the perception of that object at a later date. "All parts together are summarized in the idea of the object and the idea of the category to 105 which the object belongs." As Hofmann said in a later article, "When I paint a sunset, I paint a thousand sun- sets of which I was a part." His accumulation of past experience is brought forth when he wishes to use it. When brought to the consciousness, this accumulation too often can be detrimental in that one may "act as slaves to habit, unfree and automatic, like in a mental 10? prison." Hofmann believes that accumulated thought should be incorporated but should not rule the order of thought and creation. The artists mind should be free to experience nature continually and still be able to receive a new sensation from it each time. 104 Hans Hofmann, " ," cited in University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, March 4 - April 1, 1951, Urbana, University of Illinois, 19517 p. 1877~"

105T , Loc. cit.

Hans Hofmann, " ," cited in University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, March 7 - April 7, 1963, Urbana, University of Illinois, 1963, p. 86. 107 Hans Hofmann, University of Illinois Exhibition ..., 1951, p. 187. 50 In a 1951 catalogue for his annual show at the Sammuel Kootz Gallery, Hofmann published his article, "Space Pictorially Realized Through the Intrinsic Faculty of Colors to Express Volume." Dealing mainly with color, he explained the properties of pure color and their effect on the artist and the observer. Unbroken pure color can be used by the artist without any disturbing effects If he translates a spatial experience of nature or the automatic response of the picture plane into a plastic statement and 108 places it on the picture surface. In this way, color from the start is a formal problem which must be taken into account as the other formal elements must. This statement is a further development to the solution of the formal and creative elements. In 1931, the formal elements were the line, the plane, volumes and the resulting complexes. His later list of creative elements included all the formal elements with the addition of color and light. His state• ment of 1951 makes color and light a formal problem and part of the formal elements. In fact, formal and creative elements have become one. In creating the work of art, pure color should be used. Pure color can be "any mixture of color as long as

1 net xuoHans Hofmann, "Space Pictorially Realized through the Intrinsic Faculty of.Colors to Express Volume,"cited in Hans Hofmann Exhibition Catalogue, Nov. 13 - Dec. 1, New York, Sammuel Kootz Gallery, 1951. 51 such a mixture is handled flat and unbroken. The totality of its formal extension affects only one color

shade and with it one light meaning.When this area

of pure color is juxtaposed onto another pure color area,

"each color becomes translucent by depth penetrations, and with it, volume of varied degrees."'1""'"0 The volume

created is proportional to the depth required to bring

the canvas back to two dimensionality and on its placement

on the canvas, both which are interrelated. "Any color

shade must be in the volume that it suggested, the exact plastic equivalent of its formal placement within the 111 composition." From this it can be seen that each color shade must be so placed in the composition that it reflects the volume that is to be depicted in that area. Small color areas should not be used for they would be blended by perception and be seen as a black and white function, tonal. By using larger areas of separated colors, this interval facility makes color a plastic means. The contrasts between the colors will create a lively and vibrant volume suggestion. Also by the contrast of colors, a mystic express• ion is created. Contrasts are handled not haphazardly,

10 9Loc. cit

110T ' Loc. cit Ill Loc. cit 52 but "only in relation to a strict mastery of the colors with the composition through the placement of the

colors."H2 Depending on placement, color and contrasts, the inter-relationship between these qualities creates a psychological effect. Therefore, if the composition is altered slightly a new psychological rapport will 113 develop. "This explains the magic of painting." During 1952 two articles were published in exhibition catalogues. As will be seen in the following paragraphs their contents overlap. The fine and applied arts are distinguished by their different approaches, empathy being the differentiation between the two. Creat• ions dependence on experience will in the end determine what work of art can and will represent. In creating such a work of art, Hofmann would employ his dual capacity of experiencing. The first is his reaction to time and the material world around him. The second is that which makes him an artist, "professional consciousness." What this quality actually is, Hofmann did not clearly define. It entails "all the basic requirements of his profession which makes pictorial realization of all the other re-

Loc. cit. 113 Loc. cit. 53

quirements possible."114 In each experience there is the presence of empathy, "the capacity of finding and giving of intrinsic values of the things in life as well 115 as an artistic realization." J The artist must be able to transpose himself into animate and inanimate objects.

It is necessary for the act of creation.

Creation is based on an initiating concept which is derived from the experience of the world around, nature. Hofmann had made a similar statement in the

1915 Prospectus. To experience deeply requires the power of empathy. Once a concept is formed it goes through a

series of changes when the artist is transposing it into the physical entity of the medium. He must take into account the qualities of the medium by empathizing into

it. "The execution of the concept asks from the artist

the penetration of the inner life of the medium of ex- pression."

The work of art created is a new Reality for it has a solitary existence. It represents the personality

of the artist, his soul, mind, sensibility and temperment,

**Hans Hofmann, " ," cited in University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, March 2 - April 15, 1962, University of Illinois, Urbana, 1952, p.199.

11^Loc. cit. 116 Hofmann, University of Illinois Exhibition..., 1952, p.200. — ~~~ 54 It is the "glorification of the human spirit," for it holds that spirit in a state of eternal rejuvenation in answer to an everchanging world. By holding the spirit of the artist, he becomes immortal. Art is also a

"cultural documentation of the time in which it was pro- 117 duced." (Harold Rosenberg has stated that "Hofmann 118 separated art from social conflict" during the middle thirties.) "Modern art is a symbol of our democracy the artist through his art is the personification of democracy's fundamental principle in being the higher ex• ample of spiritual freedom in his performance of uncon- 119 ditional, unrestricted creativeness." Because of the burdensomeness of everyday life in a democratic or other society, art is a counter-balance to it. The release achieved from art can be attained in both the fine and the applied arts. The difference be• tween the fine and the applied arts is the Equality 12D through which the image becomes self-evident." There is no basic difference between this definition and earlier 117 ones dealinHang wits Hofmannh symphoni, "A c Statemenand decorativt by Hane spainting Hofmann,. " Fine cited in Hans Hofmann Exhibition Catalogue, Oct. 26 --Nov. 22, New York, Sammuel Kootz Gallery, 1952. 118 Harold Rosenberg, "Hans Hofmann's Life Class," Portfolio and Art News Annual., no. 6, Autumn, 1962, p. 25. 119 Hofmann, "Reply to questionaire ...," 1949, p. 45. 120 Hofmann, "A Statement ...," 1952. 55 arts or symphonic painting is "the end product of an in• tense accumulation of intrinsic values which have pre• conditioned each other aesthetically in a step-by-step development to summarize finally in the creation of this all dominant singular, luminous and translucent volume that makes the spatial totality and monumentality of the picture." The flatness of the decorative arts is derived from the constant pictorial balance which "depends on the formal placement of the colors within the composit• ion and creation of varied intervals that makes: color a plastic means of first order."122 In both, Hofmann has placed a greater emphasis on light and color. The length of the definitions exhibits Hofmann's wordy style of writing but most importantly, shows the inclusiveness and development of ,his theories up to this date.

The articles just cited, as has been seen, are straight forward and do not appreciably change or add to Hofmann's theory. In July of 1953, he published in New Venture his article "The Resurrection of the Plastic Arts." It further defined Hofmann's stand for movement on the picture plane. As Hofmann said, the Resurrection of the

121T Loc. cit.

122 Loc..cit. 56 Plastic Arts was the "rediscovery of the Life endowed picture surface."123 The picture surface automatically responds to "any plastic animation with an aesthetic equivalent in the opposite direction of the received impulses."124 When an area of paint is applied to the canvas, a proportional area and force pushes away from the canvas towards the observer. The difference between the pushing into and pulling out of creates a feeling of depth and space. "The entire depth problem in the visual arts culminates in this way in an emotionally controlled aesthetic projection into the hidden laws of the picture 12 5 surface." J When one perceives as depth on a canvas painted with knowledge of the pictorial surface's hidden laws, one is actually seeing the "shifting" back and forth of planes. The depth created has volume for it is negative space or form. The combination of both positive and negative space or form creates the whole entity of space. In creating such an illusory depth, one must take into account formal placement (line, planes, volumes) 123 •^Hans Hofmann, "The Resurrection of the Plastic Arts," (1953). cited in Hans Hofmann, New York, Harry N. Abrams,-I963, p.44.

124T Loc. cit.

125T Loc. cit. 57 and color saturation on the formal elements. One does not separate these two aspects but solves them simultaneously with relation to the spatial problem for the concept to be depicted. The artist is able to work these two by realizing that the pictorial surface can be experienced in a way similar to that of nature. Nature is in actuality three dimensional but the appear• ance to our eyes is two dimensional. Due to past learn• ing and experience, the effect of the two dimensional appearance on our perception is that of three dimension• ality. In a similar way, the picture surface is two dimensional but because of the combined effect of place• ment and color saturation, the picture surface has the effect of three dimensionality. Hofmann retained the theory of effect and appearances as stated in the 1932 article, "Plastic Creation." The illusory pictorial space alternates between two dimensionality and three dimensionality creating the push and pull effect. The

pictorial space is "an aesthetically created space, (and) an activated fluctuating space balanced within the periphery of the inherent laws of the picture surface in relation to which all employed pictorial means must function plastically."126 The picture plane has a definite limit to which projection and recession can occur.

126_ Loc. cit. 58 The amount depends on the surface's size, shape, ground and the artist.

Hofmann himself has not defined and explained any one of his paintings in relation to these limits. In an article for the Bennington Alumni Quarterly he was asked to do just that, but instead he discussed his attitude when painting.

A painting to him "means the immense struggle through which the picture has gone on its development to come to the result which is finally offered to the public. Either his pictures communicate or they communicate not."127 ^he observer's message is a picture and that it was "created as 128 nature has created a flower." This could appear to be a god-like approach to painting. Hofmann even implies it when he suggested in an earlier article that art is a means to immortality. Such may be the case but Hofmann is trying undoubtedly to show the similarity of the growth factor of both plants and paintings. He sees the bare canvas as the seed, the artist's inspiration as its source of life, the creative elements such as line, plane, volumes, complexes and color as the fertilizer and nourishment for the seed 127 'Hans Hofmann, "Hofmann Explaining his Paintings," Bennington College Alumnae Quarterly, vol.7, no.l, Feb. 1, 1955, P.23.

128T Loc. cit. 59 and the completed painting as the culmination of the plant, its flower.

Hofmann does not try to make you like or dislike his completed paintings, possibly one of the reasons why he does not explain an individual painting. Each of his paintings, he believes, "has a life of its own created by pictor•

ial means. If they are not understood today, they are

understood tomorrow, maybe in a hundred years, maybe in two hundred years. But I know they will be understood."129

If Hofmann means his paintings will be understood, he undoubtedly believes that his writings will facilitate their understanding. As stated before, he does not discuss his theories in relation to any of his paintings. As in his 1955 article "The Color Problem in Pure Painting," a theoretical discussion is undertaken. Color achieves prominence over form because of its ability to form re• lations and intervals. "Push and Pull" can also be achieved by color but color development depends on form for which the colors exist; so it must develop simultan• eously.

Color can be used in either of two ways in a paint• ing. If color is used solely as a black and white function for the creation of form and volume, it is a tonal paint• ing. In another approach, pure painting, color is used "for

129LOC. cit 60 a plastic and psychological purpose."130 Hofmann's use of the word plastic in connection with color shows his increas• ed awareness of color's volume forming quality as stated in "Space Pictorially Realized through the Intrinsic Faculty of Color to Express Volumes," 1951. Pure painting is a "rhythmic interweaving of the color scale,"x31 which results in simultaneous contrasts. These contrasts create the light in a painting. Colors are.placed on the canvas so that they relate to each other in a "color development" upon which their formal grouping ultimately depends."132 Hofmann now says that "formal and color development go on

1 simultaneously." ^ in the earlier articles Hofmann differ• entiated between the two in his definition of formal and creative elements.1^ The simultaneousness of these two developments unite the formal and creative elements into one and the same category. In this 1955 article he says 13 5 that color's function is formal. Color is therefore a

3 Hans Hofmann, "The Color Problem in Pure Paint• ing," (1955), cited in Frederick S. Wight, Hans Hofmann, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1957, p.51

131Ibid., p.52. 132Ibld., p.54. 133Ibid., p.52. 134Hofmann, Exhibition Catalogue Berkeley, 1931, Hofmann, "Plastic Creation,1? 1932, p. 35 - 38.

135Hofmann, "The Color Problem ...," (1955), p.54. 61 formal and creative element, further uniting the two indistinguishable categories.

Color, as used by itself, is not creative. It must be used as an integral part of forms. "Color becomes creative by force, by sensing the inner life by which colors respond to each other through the created creat• ivity of intervals."13^ These intervals are created by two physical carriers on the canvas which cause the eye to react to each and to both. These physical carriers form within the observer a non-physical entity which governs the observer's vision of the two objects. That non-physical entity, "hyperphysical overtone,"137 is what Hofmann called 138 in previous articles a higher third, which was used in connection with a relative meaning. It can now be seen that an interval and a relation are related to Hofmann*s terms. "Both are united to carry a meaning through their inter- 139 action." The variation of force between the two hyper• physical overtones is the relation. This relation is a

"simultaneous accelerated intensification or diminution"140 of two colors in an interval. An interval shows an inter- 136Ibid., p.53. 137 Loc. cit. 1 od Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948", p.47.

139Hofmann, "The Color Problem ...," (1955), p.53.

140T Loc. cit. connectedness between two areas of color which can be

joined to form a higher third. The force between the

color areas is governed by the relation. Hofmann*s con•

cept of an interval had changed from the 1931 article in which he said that "intervals were color planes standing

in greatest possible contrasts to its neighbours within

the balance of the whole."141 This idea leads to the

theory of expansion and contraction as discussed in 1948

The definition of the interval of 1931 is however able

to bring a work of art together and unify it by the con•

trast creating a focus. The combination of the overall

contrasts can create a luminosity on the canvas. As

stated in 1955, these intervals can also operate between

intervals themselves, "like sound in music."142 Because

intervals amalgamate and grow, that "makes color a plast

means of first of order."143

From the plasticity which expands color monument-

ality and conversely contracts it in an counter-action,

color can work with the formal development of push and

pull. Hofmann said earlier that color itself projects

and recedes much in the same sense as "push and pull."

He now says that color combined with the formal develop-

141Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1932,'p.9.

142Hofmann, "The Color Problem ...," (1955), p.53 143 Loc. cit. 63 ments of the work is able to increase or decrease the intensity of either the push _or pull. If one large area of red and a small area of yellow were placed on a canvas, the large red area would project with a stronger force than the yellow. The "push" forward would also be faster, as the red area catches the eye first. The eye focuses on the red area .first but it also sees the yellow. By altering the focus to the yellow, the red would "pull" back and the yellow would push forward. This "push" of the yellow is not as strong as that for the red for the yellow as compared to the white ground does not contrast as sharply and has not an area as large as the red. Depending on the distance of separa• tion between the two colors, there is the interval faculty which varies the interaction between the two, affecting their expansion and contraction, push and pull. If the colored areas were on a dark ground the suggestion of depth would be greater. Black would tend to recede creating a greater volume and also a darker canvas with less luminosity.

It is the ability to synchronize the development of both color and form in a painting which will lead to a successful work. In each case, they affect the picture plane similarly in that there is an automatic reaction from the picture plane whenever any of their 64 developments occur on the picture plane. It must be realized that color development leads continually to ever- changing multi-interpretations. Through color's self- 144 sustaining development, form is determined. Because color exists on a form, such as a plane or volume, how and where the color is placed on the canvas determines in the end how the formal development will occur. This attitude of Hofmann has developed since his first writ• ings when he said that line, plane and formal complexes 145 were the most important factors for formal development. Later in a discussion of formal and creative elements, 146 we see that form is a result of light and vice versa. Hofmann now has placed light and color as the determinants of form. Color, because of its dual role for its own develop• ment and formal development, creates the phenomena of push and pull which is the basis for pictorial life. Color by contrasts with neighbouring areas of color creates the vibrant effect upon the vision of the eye first. The simultaneous contrast is not tonal in the sense that the colors merge together but that "their meeting (to form contrasts) is the consequence of the color and form 1/fZfHofmann, "The Color Problem ...," (1955), p.54. 14^Hofmann, Exhibition Catalogue ...,Berkeley,1931. 146 Hofmann, "Plastic Creation," 1932. 65 development of the work. Form and color operate each 147 in its own sovereign rhythm." The last statement seems to contradict Hofmann's other statement in the same

article that "color development determines, form."1^ What Hofmann probably means is that although form is determined by color placement, the placement of form has its own set of laws which it must follow and obey. Both form and color are, however, governed by the Painting Laws, stated in "On the Aims of Art," 1952. The grouping of colored areas in their formal development results in a unit called a complex. "In ^spite of a multiplicity of shaded differences, their synthesis presents itself as one color complex contrast• ed with another and all the other complexes within the 149 pictorial totality." The intervalled relation between the colors of that area react to form a solid projecting and receding area. The relationship between all the complexes with their balance of push and pull, expansion and contraction presents the two dimensionality of the canvas while the tensional forces create the depth and volume. If one force is greater than its counter-force in the opposing direction, the painting will appear to 147Hofmann, "The Color Problem ...," (1955), p.54.

^"4^Loc. cit.

^"^Loc. cit. have holes; areas of recession in which a projection is not able to counteract it. In a good painting this is not the case; the canvas is a unified whole.

Each complex is made up of several areas of color but, "as a jewel, reflects one color in every change of 150 normal light condition." It is through "the inter• relationship of the individual colors to form one color reflection and the total harmony between them (which)

emanates the aspired creative intention."-*-51 jn decorative painting the largeness of the flat areas of color does not permit such a close relationship between the individual areas to form groupings with one light reflection, but rather the large simplified area is a single reflection in itself. The single reflection is not as vibrant and lively as the complexes of pure painting. It is the life of a pure painting that allows for pictorial communication. A new reality comes into existence, a created reality. The color gives aesthetic enjoyment and a sense of emotional release which is related to the form of the painting. When these facts are taken into account and "awaken in us feelings to

15°Hofmann, "The Color Problem ...," (1955),p.56.

151T Loc. cit. ' ' 67 which the medium of expression responds analogically, 152 we attempt to realize our experience creatively." The finished creation will depend on the inter-meshing of all these ideas and lacing them into the painting. With the knowledge that the painting must fit together

the artist is free to use his imagination, inventiveness,

sensibility and the selective capability of his mind.

Man's mind and its effect from nature are dealt 153 with in Hofmann's 1958 publication It Is. The affect of nature and the artist's awareness will determine the creation of the artist. The mind of the artist, surround• ed by nature, has also been greatly influenced by it. He sees with awareness, for "seeing without awareness,

(is) short of blindness."1^ Although there is this influence, it is what the artist does with these influences that brings out a great work of art. "The interpretation of pictorial means of what we see is 15 5

'another152 art'." "Objectivity is also goose unless Loc. cit, 153 Hans Hofmann, "excerpt from It Is,"(Winter - Spring, 1959), cited in Los Angeles County Art Museum, New York School, The First Generation, Los Angeles, Members of the Board of the Los Angeles County Art Museum, 1965, p.17. "^4Loc. cit. x

155T ... ' Loc. cit.

) 68 156 we make something out of it." "Nature's purpose in relation to the visual arts is to provide the stimulus

stimulus through its creative behavior."157 Nature in its creative way of bringing life to the inanimate objects, initiates in the artist a similar action. The artist's mind is sensitive to the way in which nature acts and reflects this in his paintings. "Man's sensitive mind can think and feel; it enables him to create that is to impregnate physical substance with 158 life." v By use of his conscious and unconscious faculties, the artist becomes aware of space in every form of manifestation"159 of nature. Through the realiza• tion that the two dimensional surface of the picture plane can be made to oscillate to the three dimensional, the resulting vibrancy and dynamism brings the life to the canvas. At each stage of the two dimensional and three dimensional there is a static state but the change to the contrasting dimension develops the sense of move• ment. Movement is answered by a counter-movement and 156 y Hans Hofmann, "Nature and Art, Controversy and Misconception,", cited in,New Paintings by Hans Hofmann, Jan. 7 to 25, New York, Kootz.Gallery, 1958. 157Loc. cit. 158 Loc. cit. 159' Hofmann,"excerpt from It Is," 1959, p.17. 69 consequently develops rhythm and counter-rhythm. The pushing and pulling to both the two and three dimension• al create the sense of forces which because of their balance brings about tensions. These forces resulting from the picture surface and the color and form that have been applied, have a life of their own. "Color and

light are to a great extent subjected to the form problem 160 of the picture surface." This statement contradicts the 1955 article in which Hofmann said that color is the basis for form and that the two developments, formal and .161 color, should be synchronized. Hofmann has appeared to back down on his stand for the predominance of the color development. The last series of articles for the third group of Hofmann's published material covers a period of four years and includes five separate publications. These articles are generally quite short and repeat Hofmann's previously stated theories. He stands firm on the non- figurative philosophy which includes his total self. The mood of the work then will represent his total being. Hofmann's general philosophy of art takes on his summation of the ideas he has presented over the years. His 160 Loc. cit. l6lHofmann, "The Color Problem ...," (1955), p. 51-56. 70 attitude as a teacher is not forgotten for he has spent over half his life as one. Hofmann believes a teacher should not tell the student exactly which color or formal development pattern to follow for it is the teacher's job to "approach (his) students merely with the human desire to free them of all scholarly inhibitions." This free• dom will either bring out that real talent of all gifted people or it will "kill all mediocrity and false mysti•

fication of one's real nature."1^ In the latter ease, Hofmann says he has done just that many times. He be• lieves that talented people take time to develop. They must pass through stages of self-discipline and self- enlightenment in order to become masters. Hofmann has not varied his statement about an artist being born; this inborn quality must be led along a certain path in order to achieve success.

His senses govern an inner eye or inner vision. The dependency of each sense on every other sense creates in the mind combinations and relationships of great creative potential and facilitate the imagination. Creat• ed relations create a higher spiritual third, and creative

l62Hofmann, "excerpt from It Is," 1959, p.17. -i f.r> Hans Hofmann, " ," cited in University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, March 1- April 5, 1959, University of Illinois, Urbana, 1959, p. 226. ' 71 combinations bring about life to the picture surface by- push and pull,< expansion and contraction in form and in color. The medium itself is only a carrier of the significant meaning derived from the relations and combinations which is spiritual, .hyperphysical. One can• not discuss or criticize a work of art on mere physical characteristics alone for it is the spiritual "which is the only justificationof a work of art."x^4 Hofmann had stated earlier in the 1948, The Search for the Real, "the real in art never dies because its nature is predominantly spiritual."x^5 painting — is inspired by the spirit of its creation and its straight forward appeal to the

senses. The audience can identify the meaning and the mood of its creation." The thoughts and actions that are experienced in creating that painting can be' seen by the observer. Hofmann, when questioned, whether his paintings reflect his mood or emotion, replied that they reflect his "whole psychic make-up and convey nothing but 167 my own nature." His involvement with the painting

^Hans Hofmann, " ," cited in Hans Hofmann, Exhibition Catalogue, Jan. 5- 23, I960, New York, Kootz Gallery, I960. : :

l65Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p.54.

l66jj0fmanrLj Exhibition Catalogue New York,I960, x^7Hans Hofmann, " ," cited in Katherine Kuh, The Artist's Voice, New York, Harper and Row, 1962,. p. 119. 72 makes him forget his own personal problems and leads to a continual optimism. This mood is reflected in the lighthearted titles which Hofmann says he chooses from the feeling the painting suggests when it is completed. This 1962 statement seems to be a development from the one made in 1955 in the Bennington College Alumnae Quarterly. He said that he felt each painting meant an immense struggle through which the picture has gone through in the development." 'HofmannTs change of attitude reflected his growing popularity and the great• er time he had for painting since he had closed his art school.

The optimistic mood is not attained as soon as one starts to paint. Often Hofmann drew "in order to free himself so that he could understand the meaning of the composition."1^ He becomes involved with formal development and finally engrosses himself in the paint• ing. He is continually aware of what is happening on the canvas. Accidents, planned or unplanned, are solved by the suggestion within the work itself. No sketches are prepared for a painting, because each work of art is developmental within itself. At each stage, the painting or drawing is a work of art.

l6oHofmann, "Hofmann Explains ...," 1955, p.23.

l6^Hofmann, cited in The Artist's Voice. 1962,p.125, 73 The quality of the work is not dependent on whether a real image can be seen for a "figurative attempt is condemned when made without consideration of the underlying aesthetic principle of abstractions because such mortal negligence will necessarily lead to uninspired imitative and academic formation."170 The artist must let his mind be open to all forms of creation so that his thoughts will be free to express aesthetic principles which-are the basis of art. Hofmann does not explain what is meant by "aesthetic principles." "No one can give a correct explanation of what art is."171 This last statement appears to be a contradiction to Hofmann's writings. Has he not tried to define creation and the principles upon which it is based?

By analysis of his own creative process, Hofmann developed his theory of creativity. He realized that art should not imitate physical life for "art must have a life of its own. A spiritual life."172 This idea of the non-figurative and spiritual quality of art developed from his first writings. "A painter must

170Hans Hofmann, " ," cited in University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Feb. 20 - April 2, 1961, University of Illinois, Urbana, 1961, p. 116.

171Hofmann, cited in The Artist's Voice, 1962,p.118.

172Hans Hofmann. "Hans Hofmann on Art." The Art Journal, vol. 22, no. j, Spring, 1963, p. 180. 74 create pictorial life with reference to the laws dictated 173 by the medium.n ,J Hofmann stated these laws after his arrival in America in 1931. Through the intuitive faculty of his subconscious mind to stimulate his conscious mind, the artist is able to use his senses so he can "dis• cover the intrinsic faculty and inner life of everything."17^ He stated in 1931 that "the work of art is the product of the artist's power for feeling and of his sensitivity to life-in-nature and life within the limits of the medium."176 Hofmann's concept of empathy and spiritual projection did not change through the years. The mind of the artist is able to perceive beyond the purely physical. His inner eye sees into the inner life of everything; "therefore every- " 177 thing can serve as an expression medium." '' The quality of the resulting work of art depends on the artist's ability to create a spiritual reality with the physical medium of expression. Spirituality is derived from the "synthesis of all 178 relationships." As early as 1948, Hofmann had stated l73Hofmann, cited in The Artist's Voice, 1962, p.118. ^Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1932, p. 9 - 10. 175Hofmann, "Hans Hofmann on Art," 1963, p.l&O.

176Hofmann, "Painting and Culture," 1931, p.6. 177 "Hofmann, "Hans Hofmann on Art," 1963, p. 180. 17^Loc• cit. 75 that "two physical facts in an emotionally controlled relationship always create the phenomenon of a third 179 fact of a higher order." 7 The synthesizing of all relationships is what Hofmann stated as "relations under relations being the highest form of aesthetic enjoyment,"xou Pleasure from such a work is obtained by the perception of a unified work of art. As in an organistic theory, all parts are tied together and each part implies another. The concept of positive and negative space illustrates this point. "Objects are 181 positive space" or form and empty space does not exist for it is a negation of positive space or form. These two entities do not exist singularly for in a total space, both exist side by side. To experience that space in a painting, one must feel the "forces and counter-forces that make a vital force impelled dynamic 182 space," i.e. the opposing tensions of three dimension• al and two dimensional. "Space is all energy," for

179 "space haHofmanns volume, anSearcd volumh foe rha ths emass." Real, x1949^3 ,Hofmann' p.47. s •) do ouHans Hofmann, "The Mystery of Creative Relations," July, 1953, cited in Hans Hofmann, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 19o3, p.45. 181 Hofmann, "Hans Hofmann on Art," 1963, p.182.

lg2Ibid., p.181.

153Ibid., p.182. 76 scientific personality of his late teens led him to the theories of Einstein who said, that energy is derived from mass, therefore relating to space and energy. The knowledge of the inherent vital forces of space and life that these forces can create, stirs the artistic mind to greater imagination to create life on the pictorial surface for the viewer. "Pictorial life is based on tension. Forces and counter-forces, rhythm and

counter-rhythms." • Color is one of the easiest and best means to create these forces for it is able to pro•

duce depth (pull) and light emanation (push) rphe forces of push and pull are mental in that visual sensa• tions are related to past experience of tensions in nature or that these tensions are felt as a reaction from the picture surface. Rhythm, a time and intensity element

of "push and pull," is derived from the artist's temper-

• - 186 ament.

Paintings of the period after Hofmann's retrospect•

ive at the Addison Gallery of American Art fall into three categories which reflect his theories at that time.

"Magenta and Blue," (1950) retains Hofmann's "cubist

184T Loc. cit.

185 Loc. cit.

186 Hofmann, "Hans Hofmann on Art," 1963, p. 180. 77 trauma." While the painting earlier cited reflects his awareness of the planar concept, this later work shows a minimal persistence of the linear concept integrated with the planar one as seen in "Fantasia" (1943). The flat canvas of "Magenta and Blue" (plate III) has been broken up into four quadrangles with the lower ones larger. Red, blue, yellow, magenta and green have been used to further divide the quadrangles into a semblance of a spatial area depicting a still life. The brightness of the canvas re• flects Hofmann's early contact with the Fauvist, Henri

Matisse as in his "Piano Lesson," (1916) . While the same general luminosity of the canvas is achieved by both,

Matisse has used a more sombre red and a paler and less vibrant blue. Each color that Hofmann has placed on the

canvas vies with every other for the greatest projective and dynamic power. If, as in the case of the blue, an area of color does not match the dynamism of its neighbour•

ing color to form a stable relation, that area of color is increased so that the size will in the end create the same

effect. The magenta to the right of the blue and on the top left corner of the canvas have a small area for their

projective powers do not necessitate a large and dominant area as does the blue. Even though they are at the side of

Clement Greenberg, Art and Culture, Boston, Beacon Press, 1961, p. 192. the canvas, they have the force to combat the blue. The use of color in these planar areas is further emphasized in Hofmann's later works of I960, but lines and dynamic planes are used here to achieve the effect of "push and pull," expansion and contraction.

As in the analytical cubist works of Picasso and

Braque, Hofmann has appeared to have taken different view points of the same still life. The blue area to the lowe: right can be associated with the red, yellow and green still life area to the upper left. While Braque and

Picasso took different views of the same object and tied them together in their compositions, Hofmann here, seems to have taken a front and back view and separated them on the canvas. It must be realized that these two areas most likely do not represent the same objects from differ ent sides but the relationships between their forms and spatial displacement inherently cause the observer to unify them. A relation is set up between them which causes the two areas to contract together yet the intensity of the yellow-red texture and the magenta cause the two to expand off the canvas.

The plane of blue is projected off the canvas by its forceful color but most of all by the dynamic planes.

The blue area of color, by being angled, appears to come out to the observer as the upper right yellow area recede 79 This blue does not project flat out but is also angled for the lower black areas projects the blue when the lower portion of the canvas comes into focus. The whole bottom area is also angled off by the slanted horizontal. The red overlaying the blue and the red to the left center cause the eye to follow a right-left direction and the contrasting with the yellow-green result in an activated lift and push. The yellow associates with the yellow-red texture to bring the plane down only to be projected again by the blue area. The yellow area to the upper right does not have the vigour or energy of the other quadrangles. In relation to the others, it appears unfinished, unsolved. The black and green linear definition of the planar object raised above it lack form and solidity as compared to the objects placed above the blue.

The contrast between the finished, overfinished and unfinished aspects of the canvas illustrates Hofmann's cubist trauma. The overworked area to the upper left shows Hofmann as a synthetic cubist with the vibrant texture of red and yellow. The linear quality of the pineapple shape attains only partial planar concept in the extreme right leaf. By using the large area of color Hofmann has achieved the dynamism he called for but in depicting the smaller object the contrast with the larger areas only made them linear. The line is the smallest painting plane, but in contrast to a large planar area, it becomes merely a line. BO

However in a work such as "Le Gilotin," 1953, (plate IV), the width of a paint brush has been the basic size of the plane. Even the white area to the upper right appears to be subdivided into three separate planes by the texture of the actual pigment. While the length of each plane varies, the width remains constant so that each brush stroke appears planar. Only seven lines are used to define the figure but they are only superfluous: the figure could be seen without them. Hofmann's ability to use green in a frivolous mood detracts from green's usual sombre feeling. The paint has been applied in a rich creamy manner. The effect on the observer is pure delight. (This canvas now hangs in the administration building of the University of California at Berkeley. It creates a lively and joyful mood for the passer-bys and the working staff.) The lavish amount of physical pigment and the highly textured surface creates a uniquely lively area of color which foretells the latest phase of Hofmann's paint• ings in which he uses luxuriant oils in rectangular plane of vibrant color.

This effect can be seen in "Above Deep Waters," 1959, (plate V). The canvas has been divided into three horizontal areas; the upper section red, the middle, yellow, and the bottom, mottled black and green. Though each color appears separate and distinct, all colors are seen in each of the three areas. Transitional zones between each area 81 are the most prominent place for the inclusion of color from another area. Between the red and the yellow there are patches of green and blue which stand out and sink into the borderline. The main area color is also mottled with a different shade 1 As can be seen on the upper yellow edge, a darker less vibrant shade has been included to facilitate the transition to the red. Spots of blue are also seen above the red area. These transitional patch planes project and recede to form the "push and pull" effect. The darker shades at the borderlines separate the colors in an expanding direction while the brightness of the red and yellow contract the surface area. This con• traction is caused by the extreme brightness of both areas which form a single bright area. This now single area projects in relation to the black-blue area to the bottom. With the alteration of focus to the red, the black appears to project mainly because of the heaviness at the bottom of the canvas. The three areas then oscillate perpendicular•

ly and parallel to the picture plane.

Each area has been applied in a planar method of pure painting. The planes and areas of color each emit one color sense. Even the lower black area where green is mottled into the black has a single color and reflects not

pure in the sense of primary colors but pure in Hofmann's sense of single color reflection. The color areas are not re-defined by black lines as in "Magenta and Blue" but are 82 defined by the edge of each plane of color against another. No linear definition is required for the colors are loud and contrasting enough to define their own limits. In this work the creative and formal development have been combined into a simultaneous development. The dark colors, blue over the bright ones, red, show that the blue was placed on the red as a formal element with full realization that it would project and recede. Its formal role as a transitional and unifying device were also understood. A balance is seen in the two blue transitional patch planes and the two red ones. This almost positive and negative juxtaposition is clearly shown in the red and black areas. The areas that jut out from the black are partially reflected in the red. A complete transfer is not undertaken because the red would overpower the yellow. To give the idea of semblance,the minimum amount of repetition is able to suggest the duplication of forms. This repetition of forms was seen in earlier works such as "Magenta and Blue," but here the prominence of color is taken into account so that area of red is decreased to afford an easier balance with the rest of the canvas.

While "Above Deep Waters" retains a painterly and lush application of paint, later works delve into the realm of hard edges. "Pre-Dawn," I960, (plate VI) has a combination of the hard edge and painterly approach. The upper areas which are modeled with heavy pigment appears 83 to contrast with rigid rectangular areas. Actually the rectangles, though their edges are hard, are also heavily pigmented with ice pick points of projection. The relief of paint creates added color and undulation of color to that area. The butter-like feel of the upper portions does not represent a single color reflection but a multitude in spite of the mottled effect. Each color stroke is bright enough to stand on its own and show its force. It is a minature canvas in itself and reflects as well the entire canvas.

Areas of pure color are juxtaposed to bring the canvas to life by the vibration between these areas. The fight for supremacy of color brightness is fought by each and every color. Blue, normally taken to be a recessive and diminuative color, is able to vie with red and yellow.

By its surrounding a special color in relation to the other color it achieves a vibrancy seldom seen in blue. Yellow areas are decreased in size for the overly vibrant reflect• ion. Even though red is a resounding color, the rectangles of red at the bottom of the canvas do not appear overly powerful. A dynamic equilibrium is set up between the red rectangles on bottom and the red circle and rectangle and yellow square at the top. The yellow has been so charged that it continually re-echos its strength. The energetic quality of the colors and the expressive application of paint are a source of invigoration and appeal for the ob• server. 84 This discussion of a few of Hofmann's paintings has shown the unity of his theory and practice. His paint• ings reflect his theories and vice versa. This inter• relationship does not suggest that painting naturally leads to theorizing or vice versa, but reflects their mutual dependence for Hofmann's development.

Hofmann's theoretical writings have extended over a period of fifty years. His writings have explained his approach to art. Though this theory changes from year to year, these changes derive not from contradiction but from his further explanation and clearer definitions. The following paragraphs will summarize these theories and their changes.

The artist has an inborn characteristic, an indescrib• able sensitivity for quality. With this characteristic of hyper-awareness, his teacher is able to lead the young artist to his natural gift, not by prodding, but by sympathetic and understanding direction. The artist learns to see in nature the intrinsic values of animate and inanimate objects. Hofmann felt that an artist must have the ability to empathize, to spiritually project in order to create. The artist feels into them and receives from nature its creative quality. Nature, through the artist's natural gift, inspires and stimulates him to create as nature does. Nature's role as inspiration for creating was dominant throughout Hofmann's writings. 85 This creation is not an objective imitation of nature for that would be photographic and shows nothing of the artist's temperament. He must have an open mind for the non-figurative because that receptiveness allows the greatest possibility for the pictorialization of the artist himself. As early as 1915, Hofmann had said that he would not imitate nature, but let form evolve from the "artist's experiences evoked by objective reality and the artist's command of the spiritual means of the fine arts through which this artistic experience is 188 transformed by him into reality in the painting." The artist realizes the workings of his mind and senses. The actual physical limitation of his senses leads him to perceptions which are unreal. In 1932, Hofmann realized that objective reality, nature, had the appearance of two dimensionality on the observers senses. The effect of objective reality on the observer is not two dimensional as in appearance but three dimensional as in nature. Through the accumulation of the experience of nature to that moment, the effect of objective nature's appearance on the observer has the semblance of being three dimensional.

Hofmann, "Prospectus for Munich School ...," 1915, p.56. The perceptual reaction to a picture plane parallel the perception of nature. The picture surface with pigment applied is de facto, two dimensional. The effect on our perception is three dimensional because of the 189 inherent laws of the picture plane as stated in 1931 and the volume forming quality of color which was discuss• ed in 1951. The picture plane reacts with an equal and opposite force to that which is applied. The applied and reaction force depends on the advancing and receding quality of color and form. Luminous and contrasting colors tend to advance as do large and dominant forms. The artist is able to achieve the qualities of appearance and effect by empathizing into nature and into the medium of expression. By empathizing into nature, he is stimulated and inspired. By feeling into the nature of the medium, its laws and its inherent qualities, the artist is able to use the medium of e xpression to its best ends. With an empathetie attitude, the artist is able to feel into anything and to use it as a means of expression. How and where the medium of expression is applied to the canvas will determine the form in a painting. Hofmann said in 193.1 that the formal elements consisted

Hofmann, "On the Aims of Art," 1931, p. 7-11 87 of lines, planes, volumes and the resulting formal 190 complexes. . In 1948 he became more attached to the planar concept and said that the line was only the meeting of two planes and that volumes were a regulated series of planes. Hofmann's early writings do not consider color as a formal element but a creative one. During 1951 he developed the idea that because of color's volume form• ing quality, color increasingly became a formal element. Hofmann went so far as to say that color was a formal element but quickly realized that color existed because of light on form. In the 1955 article, "The Color Problem in Pure Painting," Hofmann resolved the question of form and color; they exist together. The development of form and color must occur simultaneously. Through the interworking of form and color, "intervals" are set up in which two physical carriers are visually related to form a non-physical higher third. This hyper-physical overtone governs the reaction between the two separate carriers. The "relation" between them is a simultaneous accelerated intensification or diminution. The variation of such forces over the whole surface of the canvas creates rhythms, a time and intensity factor which the artist governs with his temper-

Hofmann, Exhibition Catalogue Berkeley, 1931. SB ament. The balance of the forces develops tensions and a sense of dynamic equilibrium.

The alternation between an overall tension and directed forces, incites within the observer the feeling of movement. The observer perceives the change from two dimensionality to three dimensionality and vice versa. The balance of the "push" and the "pull" force in opposite directions brings about stability, while a differentiation between them develops the effect of movement and dynamism within the observer. This dynamic quality is caused by the observer's perception alternating between the two dimensionality and the three dimensionality. Push and pull is the movement back and forth, perpendicular to the picture surface. It is created by the volume forming quality of color and the relationship of large, dominant and contrasting forms. The movement parallel to the picture surface is "expansion and contraction." This move• ment is created within the observer by intervals and re• lations between form and color. Intervals play a larger role because of their ability to unify or to separate two areas of the canvas. The creation of "push and pull" and "expansion and contraction" is the mean to the creation of art. Art is. vitalized form. Movement is the essence of Life; Life does not exist without movement. If these movements re• flect the artist himself, a work of art has been created. 89 Hofmann used painting to distinguish between the two fields of art, the fine and the applied arts.

Symphonic painting, a category of the fine arts, possesses the movements of "push and pull" and "expansion and contraction." It incites within the observer, vitality and movement. In 1931, symphonic painting was distinguish• ed by their sensory and emotional differentiation which would bring about the effect of increased monumentality upon the senses. "In symphonic painting, color is the • • 191 real building medium." This 1948 statement by Hofmann reflects the increased role color developed in his theoretical writings. Symphonic paintings is also created by the artist who becomes empathetically "aware of the

intrinsic qualities of the medium of expression."192 jn decorative painting, a category of the applied arts, the artist can also empathize but he strives mainly for great• er simplification. The decorative painting will lack the effect of plastic movement because its simplification results in a totally two dimensional pictorial space. The effect of plastic movement differentiates symphonic painting from decorative painting. Hofmann summarized these differences in 1952. He said that symphonic paint-

•^Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p.73.

192 * Ibid., p. 52. 9Q

ing and decorative painting differ "in the creation of

quality through which the image created becomes self- 193 evident." By "quality" Hofmann incorporated the creative act. The creative act entails Nature. An empathetic attitude to Nature enables the artist to sense Nature's creativity. Nature's creativity inspires the artist to create the pictorial realization of dynamic movements of oscillation between the two and three dimensional planes. The two dimensionality of the picture plane is retained because of the dynamic equilibrium that results from a balance of the forces of "push" and "pull" and those of "expansion"and "con• traction." The resulting symphonic painting has an 194 intimacy, a lyricism and a rich orchestration. This painting is a cultural documentation of the 195 time in which it was created. It releases the observer from the monotonous schedule of everyday life. It has a new reality of its own because it is based on the personality of the artist's soul, mind, sensibility and temperament. It glorifies the human spirit and keeps it in a state of eternal rejuvenation. The humanistic and 193 Hofmann, "A Statement ...," 1952. 194 Loc. cit. 195 Loc. cit. 91 cultural spirit which this painting captures, are retained in this work of art if it remains in the same physical state. This spirit in the painting is above the natural world. It endlessly emits the life experience of the artist to the viewer. It is this spirit which Hofmann tried to capture in his own work and tried to incite in his students. CHAPTER III

THE WEST-COAST CANADIAN STUDENTS OF THE HANS HOFMANN SCHOOL OF ART

During the late forties and early fifties, many Canadians attended the Hans Hofmann School of Art in New York and Provincetown. Each attended at a different time and each of their reactions is distinct. Although Hortense Gordon, Alexander Luke, J.W.G. MacDonald and Joe Plaskett attended the Hofmann School, only Lionel Thomas, Takao Tanabe and Donald Jarvis are discussed here because these artist-teachers were available for inter• view. This chapter will discuss the Hans Hofmann School of Art in New York and the summer school in Provincetown in respect to the physical surroundings, the educational approach and the possible effect on the painters of that period. This effect will be discussed in relation to Hofmann's West-Coast Canadian students, Lionel Thomas, Takao Tanabe and Donald Jarvis. Their contemporary theories will be analyzed in relation to Hofmann's theories which were taught at his New York and Province- town schools.

Hofmann's arrival in America in 1931 marked the start of a twenty-seven year teaching career in his 93 country of naturalization. Following two years of teach• ing at Berkeley, Los Angeles and New York, he started his own New York school in 1933. In the following year he re• established a summer school which had been such a success in Europe. Hofmann's school in New York was first located on Fifty-Seventh Street and Lexington Avenue. It was moved to Fifty-Second Street and Ninth Avenue and finally to Eighth Street in Greenwich Village. His school did not have the typical art school atmosphere with set still lifes, color reproductions of the old masters or color charts hanging on the walls. In contrast to the vitality and interesting facets of New York City, the Eighth Street studio was stark and lacked atmosphere."*" During the late forties the fees averaged twenty to thirty dollars a week 2 for a full-time student. At his day and night classes in New York, Hofmann attended each class at least two times a week either to discuss and to criticize student work or to set up the

^Conversations with Mr. William S. Hart, Associate Professor, University .of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., April 14, 1966. 2 Interview with Donald Jarvis, Vancouver, B.C., February 1, 1966, In the following footnotes for material obtained from interviews only the name and date will be given. The location of the interview were all in Vancouver. 94 figure model for the week. Hofmann was aloof to his students and it was difficult to become acquainted with 3 him. They however developed a vigorous interchange of ideas amongst themselves. Hofmann's concept of education entailed less work with the individual student so that a k group spirit would develop. This "esprit de corps" was "inspired by the teacher, whose presence was required only intermittantly for criticisms and supervision on a policy 5 making level." In the drawing class charcoal was largely used be• cause of "its flexibility, changeability, transformability and workability. The drawings were like paintings for they often took two or three days to complete."^ The students who attended the Hofmann school had different training, background and enthusiasm for art. Hofmann, however, was able to bring out the true artist 7 and the individual in each of his students. Hofmann established a sympathetic climate to stimulate the lesser 8 talents. He "turned them on," not by lecturing or

^Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. L Thomas B. Hess, Abstract Painting, New York, The Viking Press, 1951, p. 131. ^Loc. cit.

6Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. 7Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. °Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. instructing but by demonstrations, criticisms and his

authorative personality and presence. Students were awe

inspired by him. They would all stand when he entered the room; then, one student would take his hat while another 9 would take his coat. His ability "to come to the problem

in what was wrong with a painting or drawing"10 enabled him

to criticize thoroughly a piece of work done by a student.

Hofmann would rework right on the student's work to the

extent of ripping it up and re-piecing it in order to 11 reveal its new possibilities. Criticisms such as the one just discussed were also held monthly for the entire school. They were "an important 'thing'." Artists who did not attend Hofmann's classes were also present. At these "crits" Hofmann would in his poor and broken English, "pick everything to 12 pieces" either through demonstration or gesture. Only a few works were thoroughly commented upon with his "bold- 13 stroke criticisms" and vibrant personality. Hofmann's summer school at Provincetown had much the same class situation and approach as his New York ^Takao Tanabe, March 26, 1966, Vancouver, B.C. 10Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966. 11 Lionel Thomas, Associate Professor, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., January 25, 1966. 12Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. 13Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. 96 school. In both, the students drew directly from the figure model. In New York they were more diverse and 14 interesting. Provincetown models tended to be as full 15 and Germanic as Rubenesque figures. At the summer school, models were employed for the morning session. Landscapes and still lifes could be used by the student in the after• noon if he so desired. Landscapes were often chosen be• cause of their natural dynamic quality and the enjoyment derived from nature. Nightly criticisms were held on the day's work. These criticisms, unlike those in New York, were more intimate and less theatrical. The student could get to know his teacher on a more personal basis and exchange ideas with him. The , Harold Rosenberg, has 16 said that many spinsters attended the summer school but Lionel Thomas, one of the students, said there were only 17 a few "non-serious students." In any case, Hofmann felt that the school provided them with "an experience not other- 18 wise available to them."

14Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. 15 Thomas, Jan. 18, 1966. "^Harold Rosenberg, "Hans Hofmann's Life Class," Portfolio and Art News Annual, no.6, Autumn, 1962, p. 110. 17 Thomas, Jan. 18, 1966. 18 Rosenberg, "Hans Hofmann Life Class," p. 110. 97 It is doubtful that Hofmann's students understood his teachings on first attempt because of his metaphysical terminology and broken English. Donald Jarvis, for example, said that he realized what Hofmann meant "by hind- 19 sight in his own paintings. The theories of Mondrian C^zanne, Cubism, Fauvism and Expressionism were not dis• cussed as such, but they were included in Hofmann's new pictorial approach for "teaching modern art as a 20 tradition." Harold Rosenberg said in his 1962 article, "Hans Hofmann's Life Class," that "neither financially nor as an initiating force was -the Hofmann school a success be- 21 cause of the adulteration of time, place and situation." In spite of the fact that Hofmann's school did not emphasize a cultural documentation of his time, in the sense of social realism of the thirties and forties his school was able to build up an intellectual basis for the development of abstract expressionism. While none of 22 the Abstract Expressionists attended his school, they socialized with artists familiar with Hofmann's theories. 19 Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. 20 Rosenberg, "Hans Hofmann's Life Class," p. 28-. 21 Ibid p. 112. 22 Ibid p. 110. 98 The intellectual and academic basis for their work ' naturally affected the Abstract Expressionists. The

Abstract Expressionists would not necessarily accept or reject Hofmann's theories but rather, they would develop an intellectual and academic attitude in critically analyzing their own works. Hofmann's thinking "taught the act of creation in painting by uplifting the student's 23 spirit while enlightening his mind." During the late forties and early fifties, Canadian students invaded Hofmann's classes in force. Hortense Gordon of Hamilton, Alexander Luke and Ronald Lambert of Oshawa, Joe Plaskett of New Westminster and Lionel Thomas of Vancouver came in 1947. J.W.G. MacDonald and Donald 24 Jarvis attended classes in 1948 and Takao Tanabe in 1951. Three West-Coast Canadians, Lionel Thomas, Takao Tanabe and Donald Jarvis, all presently artists-teachers, have each reacted differently to his teachings. Although they attended the school at different periods and at different places, their individual personalities and divergent situations account for their varying responses. Each individual artist's contemporary theories of art will now be discussed in relation to Hofmann's teachings at the New York and Provincetown schools. Ibid., p. 113•

2ifTanabe, March 29, 1966. 99

Lionel Thomas attended the Hofmann summer school at Provincetown, in 1947, for two and a half months there.

Part of this time was spent as a private student before the regular summer school began. He became personally acquainted with Hofmann in their many discussions in the evenings after classes. During these conversations,

Thomas came to understand more clearly Hofmann's ideals and his teachings.

Hans Hofmann, the teacher, and Lionel Thomas, the student, both believe that Nature is the source of inspiration for the creation of a work of art. Both their classes employ the human model because of its "inherent 2 5 motion" to give the greatest stimulation in the direct• ion of the energy endowed space, which is part of Nature.

Thomas said that this inspiration was not always present.

However, when he does have the inspiration, his whole being comes alive and he has to express it. The inspiration can be stored mentally and later summoned to the conscious level. For example, when he painted "Rock

Form on a Bottom of a Pool," he had "an actual experience 26 and painted it subjectively a week later in his studio."

25Thomas, Jan. IB, 1966. ? 6 Lionel Thomas, cited in "Coast to Coast in Art: Vancouver. Painter Wins International Award," Canadian Art, vol. 9, no. 4, Summer, 1952, p. 169. 166 Hofmann stated similarly that "everything comes from nature; I too am a part of nature; my memory comes from 27 nature." Both received their inspiration from nature and stored it mentally for later use. The similarity of these two statements does not necessarily imply that

Thomas adopted Hofmann's ideology. In this case, as in others to follow, the basic source of inspiration and the idea of what a work of art is, could well have been developed by the artist before his arrival at the Hofmann 28 school and reinforced there. Thomas believes that "the sources of art are 29 mysterious." , Hofmann's metaphysical and nebulous style of writing and his attributed quality of a work of art also exhibited this mysteriousness. Hofmann tried to discuss and analyze this mysterious source but Thomas believes it cannot be verbally expressed. Thomas is more consistent, for Hofmann contradicted himself by writing on that mysterious source. Hofmann wrote that an idea 27 Hans Hofmann, cited in Elizabeth Pollet, "Hans Hofmann," Arts, vol. 31, no. 8, May, 1957, p. 30. 28 The problem of actual influence can only be in• ferred except in cases where the artist actually uses Hofmann's terms and theories directly. Qualified academic speculation must be used because an artist sel• dom admits that he has been influenced by another artist. 29 Thomas, Jan. 19, 1966. has a certain specific medium through which it can be 30 expressed. His attempt to express the spiritual verbally, forced him to write in a nebulous, metaphysical style.

Thomas does not attempt such a goal for he realizes its unattainability.

Their basic concept of a work of. art is similar but

Hofmann had a more extensive definition. Thomas believes that the finished work of art contains a single idea. 31 This idea, called ""baraka" by the Arabs, is timeless. It includes the artist's feeling for quality. While Hofmann did not use the term "baraka," he expressed a similar idea concerning an artist's "highly developed 32 sensitivity for quality." Hofmann's concept of a work of art is further defined for he said that it must appear to possess a dynamic energy to invigorate the viewer. Hofmann's "single idea" has been well defined while Thomas is more vague and general. Both Hofmann and Thomas believe that adult artists rely on their consciousness of experiences; that is their senses. Thomas adds criticisms of the young artists who often tak3QHane drugs Hofmanns or alcoho, Searcl hi nfo order thr et Realo achiev, Andover,Mass.e unique an,d Th e Addison Gallery of American Art, 1948, p. 46.

31Thomas, Jan. 19, 1966.

J Hans Hofmann, "Painting And Culture," Fortnightly, vol. 1, no. 1, September 11, 1931, p. 5. unnatural experiences. Hofmann makes no references to

this method.

Thomas personally feels that he does not need

artificial stimuli in order to have an experience. By

living naturally, he is able to use these experiences to

depict his images to the viewer. Although in 1949 he

studied under Mark Rothko, an iconoclast, Thomas still

believes that man naturally sees images. He gave the

example of Leonardo da Vinci who said that man saw images

in stone walls, and of Hamlet, who saw the image of his 34 father in the clouds. Thomas explains his murals and sculptures as symbols of certain aspects of life. His mural outside the Brock Hall Extension exemplifies this point clearly. Each rectangular unit of the mural re• presents one department of the university. These images, as well as the rest of Thomas' images, are derived from his knowledge of cubism and the other "isms" of the twentieth century. Thomas' image making quality is his personal development. Hofmann never wrote about the possibilities of images and symbols. However, a few of his paintings present images which he did not consciously try to achieve.

Thomas, Jan. 19, 1966.

Thomas, Jan. 18, 1966. 103'. Another personal quality of Thomas that differs from Hofmann is Thomas' habit of mentioning names of well known twentieth century artists. Hofmann who worked and studied with these figures, rarely mentioned their names. Thomas has read extensively on the subject and theory of twentieth century artists but he has not used the know• ledge to his advantage. He only retains a few outstand• ing ideas and synthesizes them poorly. Thomas feels an academic attitude can destroy an artist by too much intellectuality. Thomas is in agreement with Hofmann for the latter said that there should be a blending together of the rational and the irrational. Thomas attempts to achieve this with his rational approach to modern twentieth century art but he does not completely under• stand these theories or has not made them a part of him• self. He attaches himself to them and uses them when he wishes, but they cannot do what he wants them to do. This is apparent in Thomas' teaching when he uses a famous twentieth century artist to explain a certain point to his students. He starts off with an artist's theory but his irrational personality takes over and he loses the students in a contrast of terms, thoughts and actions.

Both Thomas and Hofmann believe that art cannot be taught as such. The artist has an "inborn sensitivity," as Hofmann would call it, or "baraka," Thomas' term. The teacher does not tell the student formulas and design "104 techniques for the solution of the bare canvas, but he must lead and direct the student to the use and expression of that inborn quality.

Thomas teaches in a similar manner as Hofmann did.

Both leave their students alone to solve their individual problems. However, Thomas differs from Hofmann in that

Thomas lectures on technique and theory. Theory is not 35 given at random but only to "receptive students." Thomas feels that if a design formula is given to any hack• neyed artist, the formula would be worked to the ground and would also be affected detrimentally. Thomas' theatrical presentation of ideas results in the same atmosphere as Hofmann achieved. Thomas, when in the proper mood, is vibrant and authorative. He will command attention with all means available, either by shock, humour or awe. His ideas are usually incomprehensible to the unacquainted student but can be a means of expression for the student when he has grasped the concept. Thomas, also like Hofmann provides, an "experience to students not 36- otherwise available to them."

In Thomas' drawing classes he suggests starting with the sphere, cone, cube and cylinder. Thomas differs from 3 5 ^Thomas, Jan. 19, 1966.

36Rosenberg, "Hans Hofmann's Life Class," 1962, p.110, 105 Hofmann*s approach in that Thomas has taken objects which result from the planar concept as Hofmann had taught.

Thomas has to deal with students with little or no basic drawing background. He starts with easier concepts and gradually introduces the idea of planar depth by juxta• position and shifting which are the same as those expound• ed by Hofmann.

The above material does not appear to show strict factual similarities between student and teacher. Having received a course in "Basic Design" from Mr. Thomas, one 37 is able to see these similarities in better perspective. The most prominent aspect would be Thomas' teaching of the concept of "push and pull" and "expansion and contraction." Thomas develops these concepts first in the terms of form and then color. He, much like Hofmann, brandishes these terms around without explaining what he means. The students are stunned by his terminology. If the student is percept• ive enough to realize what Thomas means, he will apply it correctly but the majority of students use the formula directly and present nothing of their own. The result is a classroom of the same poor solutions. When discussing such forces as "push and pull" and "expansion and contract• ion," Thomas himself has not fully grasped the meaning 37 The writer studied with Mr .Lionel. Thomas in 1962- 63, at the University of British Columbia. The course taken was Fine Arts 228, Basic Design. 106 that Hofmann ascribed to each term. To Thomas, they are one in the same term but in fact their forces are perpendicular to each other.

Thomas also teaches the use of color to achieve a spatial quality which he learnt from the Hofmann school.

Hofmann said that color has the intrinsic quality to create volume. Thomas has taken a similar attitude, for in his interior designs, color is "thought of as an element of architecture and not 'decor'. It is three dimensional, 38 spatial and structural." The spatial enhancement of architectural interiors with color has enabled him to be• come more aware of it in his other art forms, such as sculpture. Thomas' awareness of material, actually empathizing into it, has made him "unafraid to work in any medium."39 Thomas believes the ability to project is creative. Empathy is a quality inherent within the artist. Not only is the conscious mind involved but there is a backing from the unconscious, which enables a "quiet love between the artist and the medium."40 This empathetic attitude is not taught or suggested by Thomas. This facet of the education ^Lionel Thomas, cited in Rene Boux, "An Artist Re• lates his Skill to Architecture," Canadian Art, vol. 13, no. 1, Autumn, 1955, p. 203-205. 39 'Lionel Thomas, cited in Stephen Franklin, "Busy Artist," Weekend Magazine, vol. 8, no. 2, 1958, p. 14. 40 Thomas, Jan. 19, 1966. 107 of the artist was however presented by Hofmann. He tried to incite within his students the perception of the inner quality of animate and inanimate objects.

What Thomas teaches should not to be accepted as fact, although he can imply it. He presents the ideas of "push and pull" and "expansion and contration" from Hofmann, the use of line from Klee, the purity of form and color from Mondrian, the images from Picasso, the color from the German Expressionists and the scientific and philosophic attitudes of modern man. He has taken twentieth century art and presented the best of its ideas to his pupils. He has not developed a synthetic theory as Hofmann has, but attempts to present the basis and the theory itself.

However, Thomas has been influenced by HofmannTs teaching method. Both are not educators of set artistic viewpoints and problem solutions, but are educators in the sense of stimulators of minds for the solution of problems set up by the pupil himself. Guide posts and pointers are available for the student, but what the student achieves is dependent solely on his ability to use his inborn artistic qualities. Generally, Thomas, like Hofmann, has helped , to stimulate his students, to educate the public and to build up an artistic climate within their individual environments. While the scope of Hofmann's influence is international, Thomas' has tended to be parochial. 108 In contrast to the similarities of Lionel Thomas and Hofmann, another West-Coast Canadian artist, Takao Tanabe, has reacted in the opposite direction. Having stayed at the Hofmann school for only six weeks and being of a different racial extraction and personal outlook, the divergence between Tanabe and Hofmann is easily discernable. However, in spite of these differences, Tanabe may have been influenced during his stay at the Hofmann school.

Takao Tanabe heard of the Hofmann school from Joe Plaskett. When Tanabe arrived in New York in 1951, he en• rolled in Hans Hofmann's night school drawing course while at the same time attending the day school of the of Art. The contrast between the two schools must have been too much to accept for Tanabe left the Hofmann school after six weeks. Tanabe's personality can be seen through a discussion of the interviews. During the first interview Tanabe stated that he had disregarded Hofmann's ideas even before he started classes there. If such were the case, Tanabe's attendance at the 'School would have been ludicrous. Upon requestioning, he said that he was not enthusiastic about Hofmann's theories. By this retraction, Tanabe's personal• ity can be understood. He does not like to acknowledge his teachers and fellow artists who have helped him in his work. In an interview he said that he is not the most jubilant and boistrous person. He is almost always on an even keel. His 1Q9 introverted personality contrasts with Thomas' extroverted one. With the addition of an approach more in keeping with Tanabe's own personality, at the day school in Brooklyn, Hofmann's ideas did not have a chance to jell. Hofmann»s influence on Tanabe cannot be stressed because of Tanabe's opposing personality and the short duration at the school.

It is, however, surprising to find that there are similarities between their idea of paintingls inspiration deriving from nature. As was stated earlier, Hofmann be• lieved that nature was the source of stimulation for the artist. Similar to other West-Coast Canadian artists,

Tanabe has a "feeling for the country and for nature."41 His representations of landscape are natural, and are "not of a specific time and place."42 In contrast to Hofmann's metaphysical landscape in which the artist represents the unseen portion of nature, (nature's creativity) Tanabe's landscape canvases are"not landscapes of the soul or 'inner 43 eye'." The quoted "inner eye" is undoubtedly a reference to Hofmann who Tanabe says he rejected long ago. 41 Joe Plaskett, citted in Takao Tanabe. Paintings and Drawings, 1954 - 1957. (Catalogue), Vancouver Art Gallery. 42 Robert Fulford, "Tanabe". Canadian Art, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan./Feb., 1961, p. 50.

IT Takao Tanabe: Paintings and Drawings ..... (Catalogue), Vancouver Art Gallery. . 110: Takao Tanabe's landscapes are the product of conscious empathizing into the landforms and nature of British Columbia. This empathetic attitude could have been inspired by Hofmann's classes where one is initiated into seeing into the essences of animate and inanimate objects. However, empathy does not need to be taught. It can be acquired by a perceptive and sensitive person such as Tanabe. His racial background would also lead him to such feelings of the natural world. (This latter fact should not be emphasized for Tanabe was brought up in a western culture and his contact with the orient was his Japanese ancestory, parental tutelage at home and his recent trip to Japan). Because it is not known what empathetic feel• ings Tanabe had before his six weeks at the Hofmann school, one cannot attribute his projective feelings to Hofmann.

The influential role of Hofmann on Tanabe is tenuous. Joe Plaskett quotes Tanabe concerning calligraphy, "I have broken away from the definite plane extensions of form building and volume defining of Hofmann."44 When Tanabe was attending the school, Hofmann had not solved the problem of form and color. Later in his development, color and form develop simultaneously. Tanabe in his own develop-

Joe Plaskett, "Some New Canadian Painters and their Debt to Hans Hofmann." Canadian Art, vol. x, no. 2, Winter, 1953, p. 61. ment also achieves the same effect. "Landscape of an Interior Space" (plate VII) exhibits a planar control of color. As in Hofmann's "Le Gilotin", Tanabe has used each stroke of the brush as a plane of pure color. Different colors stand against its neighbouring ones to define the edges, not by lines, but by contrast of color. While Tanabe's application of paint is not as lush as Hofmann's "Gilotin" or "Pre-Dawn", Tanabe is able to create a rich creamy effect by the contrast of yellow to the white ground and juxtaposing black planar lines. The mottled areas of the, ground reflect the colors which are laid on top. The rhythmical flow of the staccato yellow and black verticals undulate the canvas. This achieves the effect of "push and pull" but Tanabe undoubtedly would not call it by Hofmann's terms. The contrast of organic shapes to the lower left and the vertical play of rhythms across the canvas have a nature-like feel. There is a feeling of growth. Tanabe has felt nature's creative quality and pietorialized it in an interplay of vividly harmonizing colors.

This organic feeling for nature could be related to that of Hofmann, but Tanabe denies such affinities. Though similar ideas can be seen in Takao Tanabe and Hans Hofmann, the teacher's influence on the student cannot be substantiated. If Hofmann was in an influential position that aspect has been constricted, denunciated and forgotten 112 by Takao Tanabe.

In contrast to Takao Tanabe, Donald Jarvis has developed from the ideas of Hans Hofmann's school and formulated his own personal statement about art. These theories do not radically differ from those of his teacher but rather are a personal reaction to those developed by Hofmann.

Donald Jarvis who heard of the Hofmann school from

Lionel Thomas attended the morning classes of Hofmann's N.ew York school in 1948. He had just graduated from the

Vancouver Art School, and was limited financially when he applied for admission. He told Hofmann of his predicament and Hofmann gave him a job as a night monitor to pay for the tuition. Harold Rosenberg has said that "Hofmann and his wife got caught up in the personal lives of his 45 students." Jarvis was such an involvement. His job as night monitor consisted of posing the model each night and making sure everything was in order after the class was over. Jarvis called himself a "glorified janitor." Through this janitorial position, Jarvis was able to experience and recognize the ideas of a modern master in contrast to the overbearing attitude in the late 1940's 47 of the Vancouver Art School. Although Jarvis did not 45 Harold Rosenberg, The Anxious Object, New York, Horizon Press, 1962, p. 151. 46Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966. 47 Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. 113 comprehend immediately the ideas of "push and pull" and

"expansion and contraction," through hindsight in his own paintings he realized the directional difference between them. His concepts of a "relation" and an "interval" are still vague, while he understands "tension" to be a balance of forces and an implied relationship. Hofmann used the above devices to achieve a vibrant motion in his paintings.

Jarvis feels that such an end in painting is narrow and makes for a limited viewpoint. The idea of dynamism is compelling and should be translated by the individual 48 artist. Jarvis himself has taken ideas of Hofmann and re• worked them with his own personality, exactly what Hofmann had tried to instill in his students. A painting to Jarvis affects the observer with an infectuous vitality, an idea derived from Hofmann. Unlike Hofmann who emphasiz• ed this point, Jarvis realizes that a work of art must also be created with a "backlog of training."49 The artist is presented with problems formerly solved by older artists. He solves these questions and develops his own problems and solutions. His solutions have to be worked on over a period of time until the culminating idea is maturated. The artist

4^Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966.

Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. can achieve the end result by trial and error or experiment• ation. Jarvis finds that his young students use the trial and error method much more often than he would. He himself, approaches the problem much in the same way as Hofmann had 50 by "letting it grow from what has preceded it." Jarvis does not continually work at the same problem until he is satisfied that it has been solved but pursues a problem until he has felt he has produced something. Later he will return to that same question. When he has come to a final answer, he will present this to the public. Jarvis, at this point, is so sure of his solution that he is able and prepared to stand behind that work. It does not necessarily have to exhibit a verbal statement, such as social realism, 51 but can be "painterly means to express painterly ideas." This statement by Jarvis, is practically a word for word recapitulation of Hofmann's statement formerly cited. The sole act of using painterly means is also a facet of a 52 painting. These means are used to express an accumula• tion of past experience which will result in form. Similar to Hofmann, Jarvis uses experience to differentiate adult art from child art. Children's art lacks a back- 50Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966.

51Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. 52 Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966. 53 ground of experience and "gets boring after a while." An adult painting by being related to an artist's experience can also reflect his mood at that time, and thus have more depth. A work of art is related to living much in the same way as Hofmann defined a canvas as a humanistic and cultural statement.

In a reply to the question, "how should one approach art?" Jarvis answers that one must perceive that work of art for "what it is. The observer must understand the painterly qualities." In good and bad paintings of the past, one can see objective nature clearly so it is "easily 55 pegged to hang one's thought." In contrast to past anecdotal paintings, abstract ones require an increasingly prepared audience who will shed their prejudice in order to fully experience that work. Modern art requires more of the observer. Hofmann, in a similar statement said, "see- 56 ing with awareness is another art." The observer must create his own vision from his perception of the artist's pictorially realized vision. He does not need training 53Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966.

54Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966.

55Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966. 56 J Hans Hofmann, exerpt from "It Is," 1959, cited in Los Angeles County Art Museum, New York School, The First Generation of Paintings of 1940's and 1950's. Los Angeles, Members of th"e Board of tEe Los Angeles County Art Museum, 1965, p. 17. but only a willingness to approach a painting with an open mind. However, if training is given, "educate in seeing 57 what makes a painting 'tick'."

If the observer can see how these mechanisms work, he may be able to tell how the artist was inspired. What

inspires Jarvis may be bewilderment, an observation or an

insight into some aspect of objective reality. Jarvis

feels that this inspiration is something he must express.

The most important aspect Is, however, "the willingness of rg the artist to let things grow out of the canvas."

Hofmann also believed in the developmental process of a •

painting. Jarvis has a general idea of what will happen

on his canvas but he will pursue any new idea that occurs

from a certain situation on the canvas. He does not stick

to-one conceptual approach like Hofmann's planar one, but 59 employs all the tools of-"basic visual language." In contrast to Hofmann's single approach, Jarvis has many uses for color. It may serve as an embellishment, an element, another dimension, a mood creator or a controll• ing device. Unlike Hofmann, who went through different stages of the relationship between form and color, Jarvis realises the possibilities of both. Form can be "anything not to do wit57 h color, as in Kline, or color is form and form is Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966. 58 Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966. 59 Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966. 117 color, as in Matisse. Total form is the summation of all 60 the relationships within a painting." This statement is similar to Hofmann*s simultaneous development of form and color in which the parallel development of form and color necessitates change when either one is extended.

Jarvis will not state definitely what the purpose of a completed painting is, for he is not sure he knows.

It can be a form of communication; that is, an external- ization of his experience into some form. Hofmann express• ed a similar idea of an inner feeling physically pictorial- ized but Jarvis goes further when he says that "if the viewer is responsive to the painting, the function of the 61 painting will have been fulfilled." Hofmann inherently knew his paintings would be accepted, if not now, then in the near future. The difference between Hofmann and Jarvis is that the teacher had achieved some degree of inter• national fame while his pupil is still in an inferior position of being known in Vancouver and to a lesser degree in aCanada sense. buJarvist it doe' othes nort purposhave et o ofexpres a paintins the g plighis "sociat of l 62 humanity." Hofmann believed that a painting should be £ cultural statement. However, Harold Rosenberg said that

60Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966.

61Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966.

62Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966. 118

Hofmann did not get involved with the social climate of

America during the late thirties. Hofmann's school may not have taught the expression of a cultural statement, but upon Jarvis'return from the school, he painted social realistic works. It is not until the late fifties that his paintings depict the artist himself and the influence of

Hofmann.

The purpose of painting as the culmination of experience to that moment was expressed by Hofmann and

Jarvis. This experience is pictorially communicated to the observer by the painting. Like a radio-broadcaster, 63 the painter does not know to whom he will communicate. Jarvis however differs slightly from Hofmann by saying that the painting does not have to communicate to the observer what the artist is expressing. Hofmann's optimistic outlook felt that in time the audience would perceive what he wished to communicate. Both Donald Jarvis and Hans Hofmann are teachers. They felt that painting cannot be taught to the person who has not that certain gift of sensitivity. Jarvis further extends the limits of teaching. He said that one can teach a student about painting; that is mixing colors and priming. However, the teacher's greatest and

Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966. 119 most important task is to "turn students on"^4 much in the same way as Hofmann stimulated his students to create by his strong critical approach and vibrant personality.

Whereas Hofmann discussed teaching art to some extent in many articles, Jarvis later felt that "the question of Ac teaching art is too general to warrant an answer." y

The actual task of teaching has taken time and energy from both Hofmann and Jarvis. Jarvis feels that student contact added to his own work in the sense of stimulation and ideas. Hofmann, however, never said that students ever aided the development of his own work; he t was a separate entity in New York and was held in awe by his pupils. In contrast, Jarvis is more down to earth and converses more with his students.

Jarvis1 conversability has enabled him to become more personally acquainted with his students because of the smaller classes and the highschool-like approach of the Vancouver Art School. Through his teaching Jarvis feels that his thought for certain problems have been clarified. This statement is reflected in Hofmann's 1915

Prospectus where he said that the school would clarify the whole new pictorial approach to modern art. Hofmann obtained the basis of his theories from his Paris stay 64Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966.

65Jarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. (1904 - 1914) and resolved them from his own approach. His teaching necessitated organizing a coherent theory for his students and discussing it with them. While Hofmann never stated that his students aided his develop ment, "teaching helps to clarify; that is the virtue of teaching." The teacher must be willing to listen to his students and avoid all dogmatism. Hofmann had such a personality. Its results can be seen in his many students. Each had an individual reaction to his teach^ ings. Jarvis also has a sympathetic attitude towards hi students. He leads them in their chosen direction. He realizes that abstract expressionism means nothing to his young students so he approaches them with hard edge, Op and Pop art.

Hofmann taught his students a certain final end in painting which the student was not forced to accept. Jarvis as a true student of Hofmann reacted partially for some of those teachings. He feels that "Hofmann*s ideas are valid for some (artists). Hofmann got people rolling" to establish their own particular direction. Hofmann's affect on Canadian art is indirect because it has been influenced by the whole New York School of

66Jarvis, Feb. 8, .1966.

67Jarvis, Feb. 8, 1966. 121 68 Abstract Expressionism. However, in Jarvis* work it is possible to see a relationship between teacher and pupil. Jarvis did not take over Hofmann*s ideas, but worked them out according to his own personality and from a reaction to his environment.

Upon Jarvis* return from the Hofmann school, he painted in a social realistic manner. Solitary figures were isolated in a crowd. The dark and muddy colors take on a depressing atmosphere. Line is used to define planes. This early period of his work does not show Jarvis at his maturity of the ideas derived from Hofmann. The subject expresses the plight of humanity which he later disregards. His use of color shows nothing of the vitality and excitement that Hofmann had already exhibited. It is in the later works such as "Winter Evening" that Jarvis uses his experience of the Hofmann school to express his feeling and sentiments about the natural landscape and flora,,, of the West Coast. "Winter Evening", (plate VIII) as in Hofmann*s works, does not depict a natural landscape, but a feel• ing into nature pictorially realized. The effect of nature on Jarvis is the real subject, therefore object• ive reality cannot be seen clearly. One can however pick out a tree-like form, a man with his arms out- __ uoJarvis, Feb. 1, 1966. 122 stretched and a partial cityscape. What Jarvis feels about the West Coast is suggested to the viewer. The oranges and the browns create a warm and enchanting feeling. Blue and white normally appear cool but here Jarvis has juxtaposed it to the warm mauve and added pink and mauve to the blue and white so that the result is an overall warmness. The paint has been applied in a planar concept with each brushstroke a planar unit. Although one could say that there are short dark lines to the lower left and right, these are in fact the reflection of the base color coming through the linear planes of white. Because the ground has not been totally concealed levels of pictorial depth have been achieved. Each brushstroke has been applied with a verve and a virtuosity that is reminicent of oriental calligraphy. The strokes are sweeping and are done with an oriental assuredness. Because the brush is not loaded with pigment, the color of the ground comes through the white and the result takes on the appear• ance of "flying white" in the negative. However, in contrast to the oriental calligraphic brush, the equal width of each brushstroke, as the planar unit, is used in combination to form larger units such as the skyline• like shape to the upper left and the overlaid white which creates the effect of snow. 123 Upon first glance, the canvas is flat and lacks any real depth except for a slight depression in the top blue area. Focusing on the lower white area, the mauve and blue upper area recedes while the orange and brown-like figure projects. Reversing the focus to the figure, the brown and orange tree-like shape pro• jects and the white recedes, thereby creating a dynamic effect of "push and pull." Equilibrium is attained, however, by the overall luminosity of the canvas.

The three sectioned composition can be compared to Hofmann*s "Above Deep Waters," but Jarvis has created a more overall effect of color instead of Hofmann's segmented areas. The cruciform-like shape to the center creates a breathing surface of contract• ing and expanding forces. The lower portion of white which is separated by the stem of the cruciform tends to unify the base of the canvas and to contract it. The stem however has the projective color of orange and the warmth of the brown to separate the white areas and expand perpendicularly and horizontally off the canvas. Jarvis, then, has created the simultaneous effect of "push and pull" and expansion and contraction as Hofmann would have. These forces have been used to create a perceiv- ably pulsating and living canvas. The areas of white overlay the lush brown below like snow over freshly 124 tilled soil. The snow breaks and life springs forth with jubilant outstretched arms. Jarvis has captured the effect of Nature on man in British Columbia. The contrast of seasons is seen in the contrast of the warm white and mellow tepidness of the orange and brown. Jarvis' empath• izing into nature has enabled him to depict its creative role. The sweep of the brush suggests the movement of trees and the energy surrounding objective reality. In "Winters Evening" Jarvis has been able to capture nature in rich full colors and to reflect growth and life by suggestive shapes and forms. He has employed the means taught by Hofmann and used them in his own personal way to depict his experience of the natural landscape of British Columbia.

The three West-Coast Canadian artists, Donald Jarvis, Takao Tanabe, and Lionel Thomas, attended Hofmann's School of Art and have been affected by him. Thomas's two and a half month stay at the Provincetown summer school enabled him to understand Hofmann's theories and teaching methods. Because of the similarities of their personalities and the added fervour of Thomas' enthusiasm for Hofmann's theories, presently Lionel Thomas teaches as Hofmann had taught before. Hofmann's theories are employed as are other masters of the twentieth century. 125 Takao Tanabe's personality differs from both Hofmann"s and Thomas". His quiet and introverted attitude to life has or appears to have no room for Hofmann*s theories. Tanabe feels that his art has been self-developed. He does not accord recognition to his teachers which undoubtedly have affected him. His short six week duration at the Hofmann school could account for his lack of enthusiasm for•Hofmann"s theories.

Don Jarvis' reaction to the Hofmann school falls neither into total acceptance as Thomas or total reject• ion as Tanabe. Jarvis, as a true student of the Hofmann school, has understood Hofmann's theories and from them worked and developed his own approach as Hofmann had done fifty years earlier in Paris. Jarvis' six month stay at the school allowed him to be acquainted with Hofmann's ideals and at the same time to develop his own theories. These theories were not resolved totally by the time Jarvis arrived home, but rather took years of work and development in his paintings to achieve the desired end. Jarvis, as a teacher in his own right, now is in the position to affect his students as Hofmann affected Jarvis eighteen years earlier. His students are not taught specific formulas and methods, but rather each student is lead to the fulfillment of his own development. Hans Hofmann's affect is not limited to artists for such writers as Allan Leepa, Sheldon Cheney and Erie 126 Loran have written books concerning certain aspects of modern art and all have acknowledged their debt to him for his concept and approach to art. Direct influence from Hofmann has now ended since the termination of his teaching career in 1958 and his death only this year. Indirect influence, however, is still being felt because his students and second generation students are trans• mitting his ideas to the new generation of young artists. While abstract expressionism is no longer in the fore• front of the art world, Hofmann's ideas are still valid. He did not teach a certain unrefutable formula for the creation of a work of art but rather the basis of a work of art and the creative process. These ideas are not the definitive writings on the creation of a work of art but rather Hofmann expected each individual artist to develop from such concepts as he himself had done. With this backlog of information, and an inborn artistic sensitivity, the artist is to evolve the canvas from a flat and life• less surface to one in which the observer perceives the artist's life, time and experience. The spirit that the artist captures is a non-physical entity, but yet a living reality derived from the artist.

That spirit in a work of art is synonymous with its quality. The real in art never dies because its nature is predominantly spiritual.69

Hans Hofmann, Search for the Real, 1948, p. 54• PLATE I

"Fantasia,*1 1943, by Hans Hofmann, University of California, Berkeley.

PLATE II

"Effervescence," 1944, by Hans Hofmann University of California, Berkeley. "Le Gilotin," 1953, by Hans Hofmann, University of California, Berkeley. PLATE V

"Above Deep Waters," 1959, by Hans Hofmann University of California, Berkeley.

PLATE VI

"Pre-Dawn," I960, by Hans Hofmann, Collection of Mr. Prentis C. Hale, San Francisco. 130

PLATE VII

"Landscape of an Interior Place," 1955, by Takao Tanabe, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

PLATE VIII "Winter Evening," 1958, by Donald Jarvis, Unknown collection. 131

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. WRITINGS BY HANS HOFMANN

California. University. Haviland Hall. Hans Hofmann Exhibition Catalogue, Aug. 5-22, 1931. Berkeley: University of California, 1931.

Hofmann, Hans. "The Color Problem in Pure Painting." 1955, cited in Wight, Frederick S., Hans Hofmann, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957.

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. "Munich School Prospectus, 1915," cited in Seitz, William G., Hans Hofmann. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1963, p. 56.

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_. "On the Aims of Art," Fortnightly, Vol. 1, No. 13, February 26, 1932, pp. 7-TTT

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"Reply to questionnaire and comments on a recent exhibition," Arts and Architecture, Vol. 66, No. 11, November, 1949, pp. 22-28. 132 . "The Resurrection of the Plastic Arts," 1953, cited in Hofmann, Hans and Sam Hunter, Hans Hofmann. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1963, p. 44.

. Search for the Real and other Essays. Andover, Mass.: The Addison Gallery of American Art, 1948. . "Space Pictorially Realized through the Intrinsic Faculty of Color to Express Volumes," cited in Sammuel Kootz Gallery, New York, Hans Hofmann Exhibi• tion Catalogue, Nov. 13-Dec. 1, 1951. New York: Sammuel Kootz Gallery, 1951, no paging.

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Illinois.University, College of Fine and Applied Arts. University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, March 4- April 15, 1951. Urbana: University of Illinous, 1951, pp. 187-188. . University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, March 2-Apnl 13, 1952. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1952, p. 199. . University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, March 1-April 12, 1953. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1953, pp. 189-190. . University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Feb. 27-April, 8, 1955. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1955, pp. 207-208. . University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, March 1-April 5, 1959. Urbana! University of Illinois, 1959, p. 206. . University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Feb. 20-April 2, 1961. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1961, p. 116.

. University of Illinois Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting. March 3-April 7, 1963. Urbana" University of Illinois, 1963, p. 86. Kuh, Katherine. The Artist's Voice. New York: Harper and Row 1962, pp. 118-129.

Sammuel Kootz Gallery, New York. Hans Hofmann Exhibition Catalogue. Jan. 5-23, I960. New York: Sammuel Kootz Gallery, I960. 133

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Mendelowitz, Daniel Marcus. A History of American Art. New York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston, I960.

New York, Museum of Modern Art. Cubism and Abstract Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1936.

Nordness, Lee. Art U.S.A. Now, Vol. 1. New York: The Viking Press, 1957".

Pepper, Stephen Coburn. World Hypotheses, a Study in Evidence. Berkeley: University of California Press,

Read, Herbert. A Concise History of Modern Painting. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964 [1959]. 135

Richardson, Edgar Preston. Painting in America, from 1502 to. the Present. New York: Crowell, 1965.

Ritchie, Andrew Carnduff. Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1951.

Rosenberg, Harold. The Anxious Object. New York: Horizon Press, 196/f.

. The Tradition of the New. New York: Horizon Press,

Rosenblum, Robert. Cubism and Twentieth-Century Art. New York: Abrams, 1961.

Seitz, William C. Hans Hofmann. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1963.

Seuphor, Michael. Abstract Painting. New York: Dell Publish• ing Co., Inc., 1964 [1961].

. Dictionary of Abstract Painting. New York: Paris Book Center, Inc., 1957.

Snaith, William. The Irresponsible Arts. New York: Atheneum, 1964.

Soby, James Throil. Contemporary Printers. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.

Spiller, Jiirg. Paul Klee: the Thinking Eye. New York: George Wittenborn, 1961.

Time, the weekly news-magazine. Three Hundred Years of American Painting. New York: Time, Inc., j>957.

Wight, Frederick S. Hans Hofmann. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957.

III. PERIODICALS, EXHIBITION CATALOGUES AND PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

"The Age of Experiment." Time, Vol. LXVII, No. 7, February 13, 1956, pp. 62-67.

Angunes, Raphael. "The Second Inter American Biennial of Mexico." Antes de Mexico, Vol. 6, No. 34, 1961, p. 23.

"Art News of America; Andover Surveys and Abstractionist." Art News, Vol. XLVii, No. 1, March, 1948, p. 11. 136

"Art News Visits the Art Schools; Three in Provincetown." Art News, Vol. XLV, No. 4, June, 1946, pp. 12-13.

Ashton, Doreo. "Hofmann Reaffirms." The Art Digest, Vol. 27, No. 3, November, 1952, pp. 16^17^

. "New York Commentary." The Studio, Vol. 166, No. 848, December, 1963, p. 232+. . "La Section Americanne." XXe Siecle, Vol. 22, No. 14, Juin, I960, no paging.

"Book Shelf; 'Search for the Real'." Art News, Vol. XLV11, No. 9, January, 1949, P- 10.

Boux, Rene. "An Artist Relates his Skills to Architecture." Canadian Art, Vol. 13, No. 1, Autumn, 1955, pp. 203- 203":

. "The Mural as a Ballet in Paint." Canadian Art, Vol. 11, No. 1 Autumn, 1953, pp. 27-287

Breeskin, Adelyn. "Trois Peintres Americans." L'Oeil, No. 67-68, Juillet-Aout, i960, pp. 54-59-

Bultmann, Fritz. "The Achievements of Hans Hofmann." Art News, Vol. 62, No. 5, September, 1963, pp. 43-454.

Campbell, Larry. "Hans Hofmann [Kootz; to Nov. 22]." Art News, Vol. 51, No. 7, part 1, November, 1952, p. 44. . "Hans Hofmann [Kootz: to May 17]." Art News, Vol. 53, No. 3, May, 1953, p. 44. Canada, National Gallery. Jarvis and Kiyooka. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada (undated).

. Robert and Sonia Delaunay. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1965.

Claus, Jurgen. "Hans Hofmann's Dialectical Pictures." Sya, No. 2, 1966, pp. 33-40.

"Coast to Coast in Art: Artist Designs for Zoo." Canadian Art, Vol. 12, No.2, winter, 1955, p. 81.

"Coast to Coast in Art: Donald Jarvis in a One Man Show." Canadian Art, Vol. 7, No. 3, Spring, 1950, p. 115.

"Coast to Coast in Art: Vancouver Painter Wins Inter• national Award." Canadian Art, Vol. 9, No. 4, Summer, 1952, p. TW* 137

Coates, Robert M. "The Art Galleries." The New Yorker, Vol. XLI, No. 2, February 27, 196$, p. 100.

. "At Home and Abroad." The New Yorker, Vol. XXII, No. 7, March 30, 1946, pp. 75-76. . "A Hans Hofmann Retrospective." The New Yorker, vol. 33, May 11, 1957, pp. 103-105. "Donald Jarvis." New Design Gallery Press Release. Vancouver, Nov. 13, lW*~.

Elliot, Eugene Clinton. "Some Recent Conceptions of Color Theory." Journal of , Vol. 18, No. 4, June I960, pp. 502-503.

Faison, S. Lane, Jr. "Art." The Nation, Vol. 180, No. 26, June 25, 1955, pp. 589-590.

Farber, Manny. "Art." The Nation, Vol. 171, No. 19, November 4, 1950, pp. 445-446.

Feinstein, Sam. "Early Hofmann Landscapes." The Art Digest, Vol. 27, No. 15, May 1, 1953, p. 16.

. "H. H." cited in Sammuel Kootz Gallery, New York. Hans Hofmann Catalogue, April 27-May 20, 1953, New York: Sammuel Kootz Gallery, 1953.

"Fifty-Seventh Street in Review; Hans Hofmann, Extrovert." The Art Digest, Vol. 21, No. 13, April, 1947, p. 20. Fitzsimmons, James. "Hans Hofmann." Everyday Art Quarterly, No. 28, 1953, pp. 23-26.

. "Hofmann Vital at 71." The Art Digest, Vol. 26, No. 4, Nov. 15, 1951, P. IT. . "Hofmann*s Nature." The Art Digest, Vol. 25, No. 3, November, 1950, p. 17. Franklin, Stephen. "Busy Artist." Weekend Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1958, pp. 12-14.

Fremantle, Christopher E. "New York Commentary." The Studio, Vol. 149, No. 743, February, 1955, p. 57.

Fried, Michael. "Jackson Pollack." Artforum, Vol. 14, No. 1, Sept., 1965, pp. 14-17.

Fulford, Robert. "D.A. Jarvis." Canadian Art, Vol. 13, No. 1, January/February, 1961, pp. 28-29. 138

. "Tanabe." Canadian Art. Vol. 18, No. 1, Jan./Feb., T961, pp. 50-JT. Getlein, Frank. "The Missing Link." The New Republic. Vol. 136, No. 25, June 24, 1957, p. 21.

Greenberg, Clement. "American-type Painting." Partisan Review, Vol. 22, No. 2, Spring, 1955, pp. 179-1967

. "Art." The Nation, Vol. 160, No. 16, April 21, 1945, p. kW. . "Hans Hofmann: grand old rebel." Art News, Vol. 57, No. 9, January, 1959, pp. 26-29. . "Hofmann's Early Abstract Paintings." cited in Sammuel Kootz Gallery, New York. Hans Hofmann Catalogue Jan. 6-17, 20-31, 1959. New York: Sammuel Kootz Gallery, 1959.

. "The Present Prospects of American Painting and Sculpture." Horizon, No. 93-4, October, 1947, pp. 20-30.

Grossberg, Jacob. "In the Galleries." Arts Magazine. Vol. 39, No. 5, April, 1965, p. 57.

Grossee, Maurice. "Art." The Nation, Vol. 184, No. 21, May 25, 1957, pp. 464-465.

"Hans Hofmann." Art Digest, Vol. 28, No. 4, November 15, 1953, p. T.

"Hans Hofmann." The Art Digest. Vol. 29, No. 5, Dec. 1, 1954, p. "Hans Hofmann." Arts Magazine, Vol. 35, No. 7, April, 1961, p. 58.

"Hans Hofmann at 88." Newsweek. Vol. LXII, No. 12, September, 1963, p. 88.

"Hans Hofmann Continues Despite the War." The Art Digest, Vol. 16, No. 16, May 15, 1942, p. 29.

"Hans Hofmann Gift to the University of California at Berkeley." The Art Journal, Vol. 23, No. r, Summer, 1964, p. 291.

"Hans Hofmann, Teacher-Artist." The Art Digest. Vol. 18. No. 12, March 15, 1944, p. 13.

"Hans Hofmann will exhibit oil paintings." Arts Alliance Bul• letin, Vol. 34, No. 6, March, 1956, p. 54. 139 Harrison, Jane. "In the Galleries." Arts Magazine, Vol. 38, No. 5, April, 1964, p. 29. Hart, William S. Interviews with the writer, 1965-1966.

. "Theory and Practice of Abstract Art." cited in Canada, National Gallery. Lawren Harris: Retro• spective Exhibition, 1963. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1963. Hess, Thomas B. "Hans Hofmann's [Kootz: to Nov. 13]." Art News, Vol. XLIX, No. 7, part 1, November, 1950, pp. 47-48.

Hess, Thomas H. "The Mystery of Hans Hofmann." Art News, Vol. 63, No. 10, February, 1965, p. 39. Hofmann, Hans, and Hunter, Sam. Hans Hofmann. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1963•

"Hofmann at Chouinard." The Art Digest, Vol. 5, No. 10, February 15, 1931, p. 29- "Hofmann in Paris." The Art Digest, Vol. 23, No. 7, Jan• uary 1, 1949, p. 10. "Hofmann Profile." The Art Digest, Vol. 25, May 15, 1951, pp. 6-7. "In Intimate Media." The Art Digest,"Vol. 25, No. 16, May 15, 1951, p. 22. "In the Galleries." Arts, Vol. 33, No. 5, February, 1959, p. 56. "In the Galleries; Hans Hofmann." Arts, Vol. 30, No. 3, December, 1955, p. 53. "In the Galleries; Hans Hofmann." Arts, Vol. 32, No.5, February, 1958, p. 524. Jaffe, Dr. H.L.C. Interview with the writer. :.2S'£February, 1966.

Jarvis, Donald. Interviews with the writer. February, I966.

Kaufmann, Betty. "Hans Hofmann." The Commonweal, Vol. 79, No. 7, November 8, I963, pp. 205-206. Kees, Weldon. "Werber and Hofmann." Partisan Review, Vol. XVI, No. 5, May, 1949, pp. 541-543. 140 Kepes, George. "Review of Hans Hofmann's 'Search for the Real'." Magazine of Art, Vol. 45, No. 3, March, 1952, pp. 136-137. de Koonig, Elaine. "Hans Hofmann Paints a Picture." Art News, Vol. XLVIII, No. 10, February, 1950, pp*TT8-41. Kozloff, Max. "The Problem of Color-Light in Rothko." Art- Fprum, Vol. IV, No. 1, Sept., 1965, pp. 38-44. Krapow, Allan. "The Effect of Recent Art upon the Teaching of Art." The Art Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2, winter, 1963-64, pp. 136-138.

Kroll, Jack. "Some Greenberg Circles." Art News, Vol. 61, No. 1, March, 1962, p. 35.

Lieder, Philip. "The New York School in Los Angeles." Art Forum, Vol. IV, No. 1, Sept., 1965, pp. 3-13. Los Angeles. County Art Museum. New York School, The First Generation. Paintings of 1940's and 1950's. Los Angeles, Board of the Los Angeles County Art Museum, 1965. Lowndes, Joan. "Coast to Coast in Art: Takao Tanabe at the New Design Gallery." Canadian Art, Vol. 18, No. 4, July/August, 1961, p. 267.

. "Don Jarvis at the New Design Gallery, Vancouver." Canadian Art, Vol. 20, No. 1, January/February, 1963, p. 10. McNairn, Ian. "Present Directions at the Vancouver Art Gal• lery." Canadian Art, Vol. 19, No. 3, May/June, 1962, p. 176.

"The Making of Artists." Newsweek, Vol. XLIX, No. 17, April 19, 1957, p.~6"8~; "A Master Teacher." Life, Vol. 42, No. 14, April 8, 1957, pp. 70-73. Munro, Eleanor C. "Hans Hofmann [Kootz]." Art News, Vol. 56, No. 10, February, 1958, p. 10.

. "Hans Hofmann [Kootz]. Art News, Vol. 62, No. 2, April, 1963, p. 10. "Nebraska Announces Annual Purchase." The Art Digest, Vol.25, No. 15, May 1, 1951, p. 13. 141

Norse, John D. "He Paints Big." Art in America, No. 2, I960, pp. 76-78.

Oeri, Georgine. "The Object of Art." Quadrum, No. 16, 1964, pp. 8-11.

"The Passing Shows; Hans Hofmann." Art News, Vol. XLIII, No. 3, March 15-31, 1944, p.~20~.

"The Passing Shows, Hans Hofmann." Art News, Vol. XLIX, No. 5, April 15-30, 1945, p.~6^

"The Passing Shows; Hans Hofmann." Art News, Vol. XLV, No. 1, March, 1946, p. 53.

Plaskett, Joe. "Some New Canadians Painters and their Debt to Hans Hofmann." Canadian Art, Vol. X, No. 2, Winter, 1953, pp. 59-63-

Porter, Fairfield. "Hans Hofmann [Kootz: Nov. 13-Dec. 1]." Art News, Vol. 50, No. 7, November, 1951, p. 46.

. "Hans Hofmann [Kootz: to Dec. 12]." Art News, Vol. 53, No. 8, December, 1953, p. 41.

Pollet, Elizabeth. "In the Galleries, Hans Hofmann." Arts, Vol. 31, No. 5, February, 1957, p. 57.

. "Hans Hofmann." Arts, Vol. 31, No. 8, May, 1957, pp. 30-33. Raynor, Vivien. "In the Galleries." Arts Magazine, Vol. 36, No. 5, February, 1962, p. 38.

. "In the Galleries." Arts Magazine, Vol. 38, No. 1, October, 1963, p. 57- "Reviews and Previews; Hans Hofmann." Art News, Vol. XLVI, No. 2, April, 1947, p. 45.

"Reviews and Previews; Hans Hofmann." Art News, Vol. XLVIII, No. 8, December, 1949, p. 42.

Rose, Barbara. "The Second Generation: Academy and Break• through." Art Forum, Vol. IV, No. 1, Sept., 1965, pp. 53-63.

Rosenberg, Harold. "The Art Galleries." The New Yorker, Vol. XXXIX, No. 37, November 2, 1963, p. 100.

. "Hans Hofmann." Vogue, Vol. 145, No. 9, May, 1965, pp. 192-195. 142

. "Hans Hofmann's Life Class." Portfolio and Art News Annual, No. 6, Autumn, 1962, pp. 16-31. . "Hans Hofmann: Nature into Action." Art News, Vol. 56, No. 3, May, 1957, pp. 34-36. Sandler, Irving. "Controversial Abstractions." The Saturday Review, Vol. 11, No. 32, August 10, 1957, pp. 14-15.

Sanders, Irving H. "Hans Hofmann [Kootz]." Art News, Vol. 58, No. 10, February, I960, p. 13.

. "Hans Hofmann [Kootz]." Art News, Vol. 60, No.2, April, 1961, p. 10.

Sawyer, Kenneth B. "Largely Hans Hofmann." The News, Vol. XVIII, No. 3, February, 1955, pp. 9-12.

. "Painters over Seventy-five." The Hudson Review, Vol. X, No. 3, Autumn, 1957, pp. 440-446.

. "Painting and Sculpture—the New York Season." Craft Horizons, Vol. XXII, No. 3, May/June, 1962, p. 53. Schwartz, Marilyn D. "Hans Hofmann at Kootz." Apollo, Vol. LXIX, No. 409, March, 1959, p. 93-

Scott, Charles H. "New Tides in West Coast Art." Canadian Art, Vol. 7, No. 2, Winter, p. 58.

Shadbolt, J.L. "The Notebooks of Donald Jarvis." Canadian Art, Vol. 1, No. 1, Autumn, 1952, pp.8-10.

Seattle. World's Fair. Art Since 1950: American and Inter• national. Seattle: Seattle World's Fair, 1962.

Seckler, Dorothy. "Can Painting be Taught." Art News, Vol. 50, No. 1, March, 1951, p. 40.

Silver, Cathy S. "5 Star Show this Winter: Hofmann." Art News. Vol. 60, No. 10, February, 1962, p. 43.

Solomon, Joseph. "Hofmann as Painter." Arts, Vol. 31, No. 9, June, 1957, p. 7.

"Some Excerpts from Reviews of Hans Hofmann's Recent Exhibitions at the M.O.M.A., Sept. 9 - Dec. 1, 1963," cited in Sammuel Kootz Gallery, New York. Hans Hofmann Catalogue, Feb. 18 - March 7, 1964, New York: Sammuel Kootz Gallery, 1964. 143

Tanabe, Takao. Interviews with the writer. March, 1966.

Thomas, Lionel. "Architecture and Sculpture." Canadian Art, Vol. 19, No. 3, May/June, 1962, p. 22.

. Interviews with the writer. January and February, T966. Tillim, Sidney. "Report on the Venice Biennale," Arts Magazine, Vol. 35, No. 1, October, I960, pp7~j2-33. "To John F. Kennedy—Homage by Artists." Art in America, No. 5, 1964, p. 91.

"Trapezoids and Empathy." Time, Vol. LVII, No. 23, December 3, 1951, p. 72.

Tyler, Porter. "Hans Hofmann [Kootz: to Dec. 11]." Art News, Vol. 53, No. 8, December, 1954, p. 51.

. "Hans Hofmann [Kootz: to Dec 3]." Art News, Vol. 5*4, No. 8, December, 1955, p. 56.

Vancouver. Art Gallery. Paintings and Drawings, Don Jarvis, Nov. 22-Dec. 11, 1949. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1949.

. Takao Tanabe: Paintings and Drawings, 1954-57. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1957.

Werner, Alfred. "Review of Frederick S. Wight's 'Hans Hofmann*." College Art Journal, Vol. XVII, No. 2, Winter, 1958, p. 223.

Wolf, Ben. "The Digest Interviews Hans Hofmann." The Art Digest, Vol. 19, No. 13, April 1, 1945, p. 52. 144

SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Plate I, "Fantasia," Plate II, "Effervescence," and Plate IV, "Le Gilotin," from Loran, Erie. Recent Gifts and Loans of Paintings by Hans Hofmann. Berkeley, Regents of the University of California, 1964., Plates I, II, and III respectively.

Plate III, "Magenta and Blue," from Wight, Frederick S. Hans Hofmann. Berkeley , University of California Press, 1957, 1957, p. 26.

Plate V, "Above Deep Waters," Plate VI, "Pre-Dawn," from Hofmann, Hans, and Hunter, Sam. Hans Hofmann. New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., I963, Plates 100 and 132 respectively.

Plate VII? "Landscape of an Interior Place," and Plate VIII, "Winter Evening," from the Slide Library, the Depart• ment of Fine Arts, University of British Columbia.